The upscale colonies of Ashok Nagar are likely to go into the hands of the Ranchi Municipal Corporation

Ranchi, Aug. 17: Ashok Nagar, one of the upmarket colonies of the city maintained by the Services Housing Co-operative Society Limited, is likely to go into the hands of the Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) in the near future.

As a part of the process, which will start tomorrow, RMC administrator Ravi Shanker Verma said a survey team has been constituted for the purpose which will first assess the municipal tax, which could be collected from about 500 households in the colony by providing civic services.

He said the work was scheduled to begin today but could not be started due to heavy rain.

RMC public relation officer Naresh Kumar Sinha said the team, which will visit each and every house and commercial establishments of the colony, comprises junior engineer Amir Chandra Ratna Gupta, zonal supervisor Vipada Mahto and tax collector Sridev Singh.

The reason behind this development, according to an RMC official, is the tussle between RMC and the cooperative society over the collection of municipal taxes.

“In 1992, the society had gone into an agreement with the RMC that it would pay a consolidated tax for entire colony after collecting it from every establishment of it. It started paying the same. Some of the society members, who had purchased plots from the society after the execution of sale deed, challenged the system,” an RMC official said.

According to them, he added, the society had no rights to collect tax for the plot which it had sold after execution of sale deed as Article 265 of the Constitution provides only an authority of law to levy and collect taxes.

An official of the urban development department said the matter came before the urban development minister Raghubar Das, who directed RMC to inquire into the matter.

RMC, the official added, on the ministry’s direction, issued a showcause notice to the society in May giving a deadline of 10 days to reply.

The society, he further said, failed to give satisfactory reply and the civic body decided to start process of collecting tax directly.

However, some of the society members are not happy with the development.

“The society pays more than Rs 10 lakh every year to RMC without taking any service from it for the colony. It has made its own arrangement for maintenance of the colony. I do not know why the civic body, which fails to maintain the city properly, wants to take extra burden,” said a member, on condition of anonymity.

The secretary of the society, B.P. Verma, said it was wrong to challenge the present system of paying tax to the civic body

“Those, who are challenging the system of collecting tax by us, are wrong. It has still right over the plots, which it has sold to individual. According to the society’s by-laws those, owning plots in Ashok Nagar, cannot sell it without the permission of the society,” he added.

A resident of the Ashok Nagar colony, on condition of anonymity, said another reason was the irregularity in functioning of the society in the past few months.

“The society collected municipal tax from the residents according to the existing system but diverted it for other purpose suppressing the fact from society members. This resulted doubt and the controversy started,” the resident said.