Badangpet boasts of civic body tag, but wallows in utter neglect

Hyderabad: Though the property tax has been raised by three to four times, creation of basic amenities in Badangpet Municipal Corporation are there where they were when it was a Gram Panchayat.

The residents of the corporation are quite angry with the officials for the unscientific and abnormal hike of the property tax. The issue is going to play a major factor in the municipal elections.

Badangpet, which was a village few years ago, has been elevated to a municipality and then to the corporation.

It has been formed by including the surrounding villages of Badangpet like Nadargul, Ragannaguda and others.

According to residents of the corporation, the hike of property taxes was unscientific and abnormally huge. They said that one could not find such taxes in the GHMC limits.

Ram Reddy, owner of a rice mill and resident of Nadargul, said that he used to pay Rs 3,000 as property tax when Nadargul was a Gram Panchayat but now he pays Rs 1.50 lakh per year. He said that though several representations have been made to the officials of the municipality no action has been taken. He said that as he could not pay such a huge amount as property tax, he has offered the operation of the rice mill to the municipal officials and asked them to pay him a rent of Rs 1.50 lakh per annum.

Ram Reddy said that several farmers around Badangpet have sold their farmlands and constructed houses in the corporation with a hope of income through the rents. They have been given notices by the municipal officials to pay huge amounts as property tax. He said that the property tax has been levied without any measurement.

Another resident of Badangpet said that his house has been levied with Rs 21,000 per year property tax. This was Rs 1,000 when the Badangpet was a village. He wondered how the property tax could be hiked several times.

He said that in GHMC limits there was no property tax on the tiled roof houses constructed in 50 square yards area. But in the Badangpet corporation all the tiled roof houses constructed in 50 sq yards have been levied with property tax. Local leader Hanumantha Reddy said that the basic facilities in the corporation have not been developed since the formation of the municipality. There is no drainage system and water supply system not in place.

He said that water is being supplied once in a week in most of the colonies like Balajinagar, Venkatadri Nagar and Harijanwada. Though the newly developed layouts have been provided with underground drainage system, no outlet has been provided, he added.

The entire sewage water is left in the tanks in the corporation area and they have been stinking with bad odor. The linking roads in the corporation limits have not been developed so far.

The local people said that Badangpet has become a dumping yard for many years. The land near the Government Polytechnic College has been converted into a dumping yard.

The college officials said that after the formation of the municipality, the sanitation staff has started to dump the garbage in the dumping yard. Though it has been proposed to construct a building for the Corporation in this land, dumping of the garbage continue to exist.

They said that due to the filthy atmosphere created by the dumping yard, they have developed allergy and other respiratory problems. After several complaints now the garbage dumping has been reduced. A resident of the village, Srinivas said that they have urged the government to provide a tribal gurukul school in the dumping yard area.

The land at the dumping yard measures about 11 acres and two acres of it has been given to a bank.

He said that no action has been taken to set up a gurukul school here, citing court cases. He wanted to know as to how the land was given to a bank and few others when there were cases in the courts.