Hyderabad, a model for smart cities

Hyderabad: Hyderabad seems to be a model in the making of smart cities. Initiatives taken up by GHMC were discussed in AMRUT & Smart City conference at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi, attended by the Prime Minister and officials of 500 cities.

The collection of property tax in Hyderabad from Rs 166 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 1,155 crore in the current year, makes GHMC the only municipal corporation in the entire country which has achieved this target without enhancing property tax for a decade.

Somesh Kumar, GHMC Commissioner and Special Officer during the presentation on increased demand and collection of property tax said, “The increase in property tax was done through self assessment method. The staff had individually visited tax owners and checked the payments. GHMC made use of data of other departments like electricity and commercial tax department to collect tax from non-payers. It was also cross linked with other wings of the GHMC like Trade Licence, Town Planning and Fire Wing. For out of court settlement 270 cases were settled and earned Rs 20.36 crore and 1,526 cases were settled under the Special Property Tax Parishkaram. However it can be recalled that the GHMC was slapped notices by the HC for collecting tax in an inhuman manner. The Corporation in order to extract property tax placed garbage bins in front of houses of defaulters.

The other projects taken up in the twin cities by the corporation, explained to 500 city officials in the national capital, include Strategic Road Development Plan, a project of Rs 21,000 crore to be taken up in a phased manner to decongest the city. On the cards are 100 Rs 5 meal centres, 5,000 driver cum owner programme and two bedroom houses for the poor.