KATRA, Dec 05:          A joint delegation of Hotel & Restaurant Association Katra ( HRAK), PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry Jammu Region ( PHDCCI) , Press Club Katra and other prominent organization of Katra met  President  Municipal Committee Katra Bimal Indu  and showed concern on the imposition of high Taxes  on the name of usage charges in Municipal Committee Katra.

           Rakesh Wazir President ( HRAK) & Chairman ( PHDCCI) while speaking  on the occasion said that it in really surprising that alone Katra  and no other Municipal town of state is chosen for imposition of taxes on the name of usage charges that too forcebilly irresepective of the fact that some one may or may not be using their services or the  Muncipality do any work,  which is to be collected from all sections of Katra including Houses, Shops, Hotels , Sarais/ Dharamshalas, Banquet Halls etc. and that too on monthly basis on the exorbitant rates like hotel above 30 rooms at Rs. 10,000/-, Cinema 15,000/-, Dhabha 3000/-, Clinic 1000/-, Bhandhara / Langer 2000/- per day etc.and  it is even surprising that the charges  for dumping  at  Tan Talab at the official site, is kept at 15,000/- per vehicle.He while explaining said that it is really surprising that a person or organization who will serve food free of cost to Yatries and common people will have to pay Rs.2000/- as fee to Muncipality and all these taxes will apply only on Katra which will have their negative direct impact on pilgrims which  reminds us of Jazia Tax once imposed on Hindus by Aurangzeb and asked for their withdrawl  at the earliest.

                  Mr. Sham lal Kesar Chairman (HRAK) while speaking  on the occasion said that while imposing  those  taxes on people even   the basic principal of taking objections from the people  is not  followed . He said this move was started  earlier also but due to our objections it was not implemented and was assured to us that even if it would be implemented it would be on voluntary basis and would be on the basis of the usage of the services of the Muncipality only but all of a sudden bringing notification with regard to that and too on compulsory monthly basis irrespective of the fact whether some one uses those services or not is highly objectionable.

              Mr. Shiv Kumar Sharma former President ( HRAK), Virender Kesar District  President  ( PHDCCI) , Members of  Press Club Sohan Lal Kohli,Rohit Padha,Sanjay Kumar  too showed great anguish over this move  and asked the administration  for its roll back  at the earliest .

             Mr. Bimal Indu President Municipal Committee Katra said that he too is disturbed by the said notification and said that he alongwith the members of the Committee has passed resolution in this behalf and sent to higher authorities for modification of this order and will do his level  best to get this notification resinded .

              The Meeting among others was attended by Ashwani Kumar, Roshan Lal,arjun Singh,Ankush Gupta,Sahil Heera,Yogesh Gupta,Vivek Sharma ,Rajan Dharmath etc.