VISAKHAPATNAM: Above 10,000 apartment dwellers of the Port City will organise a walkathon along the R. K. Beach to protest against the new property tax proposed by Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC).
Sharing details with Deccan Chronicle, Visakhapatnam Apartments Residents’ Welfare Association (VARWA) general secretary B. B. Ganesh announced that they will start their protest with a signature campaign at Anakapalli on July 19. From there, they will cover all eight zones up to Bheemili under GVMC limits to elicit opinions of apartment residents with regard to the new property tax.
The 78th ward corporator B. Ganga Rao of CPM said they have asked people to submit their objections both online and offline. He maintained that GVMC has already received 9,297 objections. 6,000-odd people have signed online petitions.
“A poor person living in a small house has to pay Rs. 50 towards house tax, whereas he has to shell down Rs. 1,440 towards user charges on collection of garbage. It is not possible for many people of the city to bear such high user charges in addition to the heavy property tax. That is the reason why everybody is in the protest mode,” the corporator stated.
