BENGALURU: Following the proposal to introduce congestion tax as part of its 90-day action plan to decongest the city, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar ruled out any such move at a high-level meeting held on Tuesday.
Shivakumar told reporters on the sidelines of an event here that there is no such proposal before the government. “It is false. Some industrialists have advised that in the interest of Bangaloreans. It should be a proposal before the Union government. We don’t have any such proposal before us,” Shivakumar stated.
Earlier in the day, Leader of Opposition R Ashoka strongly criticized the proposal, describing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s administration as a “Tughlaq government”. He warned that the state government would be reprimanded if the matter went to court. “First repair roads, and everything will be fine. Without repairing roads, they want to tax people,” Ashoka charged. He also questioned whether the government would levy congestion tax on vehicles used by the chief minister and ministers, pointing out that many of them travel alone.