The property tax issue in Kharghar remains unresolved even today. Recently, some societies received a property tax demand from the Kharghar gram panchayat to the tune of a few lakhs. Some societies received bills for as much as Rs.90 lakhs!
Kharghar has long been plagued by a triple property tax problem. Currently, Kharghar residents are paying taxes to 3 different entities. Cidco, Tehsildar and gram panchayat.
Residents are paying service tax to Cidco, property tax to the gram panchayat and NA (Non Agriculture) tax to the revenue department in this case to the Panvel tehsildar.
Until recently there was no Police station in Kharghar and there were issues with the electric supply in some sectors. Although a police station has been sanctioned there, it is still in the construction stages with the contractor stopping work due to cost escalation.
Since Kharghar is a \’developing node\’, it does not have a municipal corporation. All tasks of the Municipal Corporation are carried out by CIDCO. Most of the services are outsourced by CIDCO eg.Garbage collection. As a result, Kharghar faces a litany of woes.
The residents of Kharghar have formed a federation of housing societies to fight this issue. The federation met the Raigad collector recently and plans to meet the Urban development minister soon. The High court has redirected the matter to the Zilla Parishad.
Recently, corporator Santosh Shetty also faced the brunt of the Gram Panchayat when the Panchayat turned up at Hotel Three star (Kharghar)which is owned by Shetty. Fortunately for him, they were unable to carry out the sealing due to \’lack of police protection\’ which is a flimsy excuse in reality. It was stage managed to make it seem like the Gram Panchayat was taking action against the big fish also.
