Visakhapatnam: The Poura Grandhalaya Seva Samithi in the city has urged the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation to remit the outstanding dues to the Zilla Grandhalaya Samstha immediately and see that the Branch Libraries in the city and the District function well.
In a letter addressed to the GVMC Commissioner G Srujana here on Monday, the Samithi president B L Narayana also sought withdrawal of all proposals for Property Tax hike and collection of Library Cess till the remittance is done.
“We have gone through your draft notification ROC No 1346/220/A1/DC, dated 03.06.2021 on Property Tax. It was amusing to see that the GVMC, in the notification, talked about 8% of the Property Tax so arrived by the new formula, is to be paid by the taxpayers as ‘Library Cess’.
The GVMC has been defaulting in remitting the Library Cess to the Zilla Grandhalaya Samstha (ZGS) for over two decades now. The total amount the GVMC owes to the Zilla Grandhalaya Samstha crossed a staggering amount of Rs.90 crores. We, as a social organisation working without any selfish motto or personal or private interest, wish to place our view that the GVMC has no moral right to collect the Library Cess from the people,” he stated.
He alleged that almost all the Libraries in the District are highly neglected–the District Central Library had lost its prime land and the building due to the neglect of the officials concerned and for over a decade, the DCL has been functioning in a building meant for a commercial godown. Even though the land is restored to the ZGS, it had not been taken over from the clutches of the CRPF and no efforts are made to reconstruct the DCL building, he pointed out.
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