No residential house tax if AAP wins Delhi civic polls, says Kejriwal

Seemingly unnerved by BJP's win and its big losses in UP, Punjab and Goa recently, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is now re-focusing on its original kingdom - Delhi.

On Saturday, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that his party will abolish the residential house tax and waive off arrears if voted to power in the capital's civic bodies, seeking to aggressively woo voters ahead of the April 23 polls.

He also cancelled his visit to Gujarat, where was scheduled to address party volunteers in Gandhinagar on Sunday. AAP workers from across the 182 Assembly segments in the state will gather at Chhavni Maidan in the city to discuss strategies for the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections and plan its door-to-door campaign.

But Kejriwal "will not be there to guide them as he is busy with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls," said Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Saurashtra zone convener Kanu Kalsaria.

The booth level volunteers meeting will now be addressed by senior AAP leader and Delhi's Labour Minister Gopal Rai.

In Delhi, holding a press conference on Saturday, the CM said, "We will abolish the residential house tax and waive off tax arrears of MCD if AAP comes to power...the party is preparing its detailed manifesto which will be released soon."

Kejriwal contended that the house tax has become a major source of corruption and promised that his party, which is making its civic polls debut, will end it.

KEJRIWAL VOWS TO TRANSFORM THREE CIVIC CORPORATIONS

The Delhi CM vowed to transform the three civic corporations in the national capital into profit-making



bodies.

Two of the bodies - the New Delhi Municipal Council and East Delhi Municipal Corporation - are currently grappling with financial losses.

To a question about allegations by political rivals that the AAP always announces freebies ahead of the polls, Kejriwal said, "Before Assembly polls, we had promised to halve power tariff besides making water free. We fulfilled all these promises. We are not lying. We are saving from `100 crore to `200 crore in construction of every flyover and spending them on public-welfare schemes. What is wrong in it?"

Taking a dig at the BJP which is currently in power in the municipal bodies, the chief minister said its councillors "could be seen travelling on scooters before the previous MCD elections, but are now zooming around in expensive cars".

Kejriwal also promised that within a year of coming to power in the MCDs, the AAP administration would turn around the finances of the loss-making municipal bodies and ensure that their employees get their salaries on or before the seventh of every month.

COMMERCIAL TAX

Kejriwal added that the commercial house tax will continue to be in place. "We are making this promise with full responsibility and after thorough study and planning," he said.

The residential house tax is an important source of revenue for civic bodies. Delhi's property tax payers owe a whopping `2700 crore to the three corporations, some individual property owner owe `20 crore.

The three municipal corporations -SDMC, NDMC and EDMC - go to polls on April 23, while votes will be counted on April 26.