Himachal Pradesh Urban Development Minister Suresh Bhardwaj said the residents of areas that have been merged with the newly created Palampur Municipal Corporation will be exempt from any house tax for three years.
Addressing a press conference in Palampur on Friday, the minister said, “While giving relief to the people of the merged area, the state government has decided that they will not have to pay any kind of house…taxes for the next three years.”
This would not mean that there would be no development of the municipal corporation, he said adding that according to the draft and rules of the corporation, the development work of all the wards will continue.
In October 2020, the Himachal Pradesh Cabinet decided to upgrade the municipal councils of Mandi, Solan and Palampur towns to municipal corporations by inclusion of adjoining area. Himachal Pradesh has only two municipal corporations, namely Shimla and Dharamsala.
After the merger, the government property and the property of the panchayats such as community buildings and panchayat buildings of the merged panchayats will now be included in the municipal corporation.
In a notification, the government ordered the transfer of all assets of 14 panchayats in the vicinity of Palampur to the newly formed Palampur Municipal Corporation. It had already merged these panchayats with the corporation, following the approval of the state cabinet in November 2020.
Bhardwaj said that with the formation of the municipal corporation, the pace of development of rural areas in Palampur will increase manifold and these rural areas will soon be seen in a new and developed form.
He said that over Rs 2-crore funds have been made available for the development works of the Palampur corporation area and there will be no shortage of funds for development work here.
With the formation of the Palampur corporation, the merged areas shall also get the benefit of development works such as street lights, sewage, and solid waste management, Bhardwaj added.
He also said there is a provision in the 15th Finance Commission to provide more funds for development to urban bodies. This will give more momentum to the development of these areas.
