Kolkata, Jan 02: The water tax issue today brought the Trinamool Congress chief, Mamata Banerjee, and the mayor of TC-controlled Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Subrata Mukherjee, on a path of confrontation, even as the West Bengal government expressed its determination to go ahead with the decision.

Banerjee said that she would launch a statewide agitation shortly on some issues, including imposition of water tax in municipal areas. But the mayor, Subrata Mukherjee, after meeting the state's municipal affairs minister, Ashok Bhattacharya, said the city civic body had already mooted such taxation measures.
Indicating that he was not much opposed to imposition of water tax, the mayor said that he had not yet gone through the state government's draft on the water tax.

Notwithstanding Mukherjee's tacit support to the state government's move, Mamata Banerjee said that she would take to the streets with her party activists to resist the levying of water tax.
"I will not relent till the decision is reversed," an angry Banerjee said, asserting, "I will not let it happen."

To a question, the Trinamool chief flayed the municipal affairs minister's statement that the state government would stop funding those civic bodies which would not implement the tax decision.

"If the state government takes such step against any civic body, I will impress upon the NDA government at the Centre to stop grants to the West Bengal government for both urban development and municipal affairs departments," she added.

Bureau Report