Gandhinagar: The Gujarat Assembly today
passed amendment bill in the Municipal Corporation Act, which
allows the local bodies to introduce user fee at certain
public places in the state.
The Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation Gujarat
Amendment Bill 2010, was introduced by the urban development
minister Nitin Patel on the last day of the assembly session
today.
The amendment bill was brought in the house in order
to enable the municipal corporations in the state to introduce
and charge user fee at certain public places with
retrospective date from January 1, 2009.
The bill was necessitated after the Ahmedabad
Municipal Corpoation (AMC) introduced user fee at Kankaria
lake after it was developed with public amenities.
However, the Congress party has challenged the
charging of user fee in a petition which is now pending before
the Gujarat High Court.
Earlier, the Municipal Act, which governs the local
bodies, didn’t have provision of introduction of user fee at
public places.
Leader of the opposition Shaktisinh Gohil, while
speaking on the bill in the assembly today, said that the
government cannot allow local bodies to charge user fee at
public places as the local bodies are meant and mandated to
provide public places with civic amenities to the citizens of
the towns.
PTI
