NALGONDA: Vasalamarri village, which has been adopted by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, is strapped for funds as villagers have stopped paying house tax for the past two years. As a result, the gram panchayat is not in a position to pay the salaries of the staff on time and clear electricity bills.
The village has 550 houses and property tax ranges between Rs 400 and Rs 3,500 each, depending on the character of the dwellings. The village revenue amounts to Rs 4 lakh-Rs 5 lakhs per annum from house tax.
Out of this, Rs 2 lakh is required for payment of salaries to the gram panchayat staff and electricity bill. But with most of the residents not paying the tax, GP paying salaries to the staff once in three months. It’s hard-pressed to undertake any development work due to a lack of funds. The salaries of the staff were paid recently with great difficulty after 40-50 residents cleared house tax.
The village sarpanch and panchayat ward members are said to have used their own money for certain village development work but their bills have not been cleared by the government. In August 2021 Chandrasekhar Rao promised to build double-bedroom houses for all, roads and drainage systems in Vasalamarri.
As there has been a delay in fulfilling the CM’s promise, some villagers sought permission to build houses in place of their old ones, but the authorities refused saying that they would get double-bedroom houses. Irked by this, they have stopped paying house tax.
There has been a sense of restlessness among the villagers due to the delay in constructing double-bedroom houses and officials’ refusal to give them permission for new houses. A resident of Vasalamarri, T Narsaiah, speaking to TNIE, said that they would pay house tax only after the government built double-bedroom houses for them as promised by the CM.
He questioned the rationale behind collecting taxes when the village doesn’t have proper roads and drainage. Vasalamarri sarpanch P Anjaneyulu told TNIE that a majority of villagers have not paid house tax for the last two years even though he tried his best to convince them.