LAHORE, June 7: The opposition boycotted the Lahore District Council's extraordinary session at the Jinnah Hall here on Monday in protest against the City District Government bid for validation of the recovery of 30 per cent sanitation fee on water supply bills continuing for the past eight months.

The opposition members boycotted the council session when District Naib Nazim Farooq Amjad Mir, who was presiding over the session, called for voting on the executive district officer (revenue)'s motion for validation of the sanitation fee recovery despite not being supported by any speaker except District Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood, who attended the council session specially for the validation of the fee recovery.

They staged a walkout from the meeting after voting against the motion. The Naib Nazim declared the motion having been carried by a majority vote after the opposition walked out without any formal voting in its favour.

The District Nazim got imposition of 30 per cent sanitation fee on consumers paying their water supply bills regularly validated despite the opposition and announced 30 per cent discount on accumulated water supply bills for chronic defaulters in the event of payment of the arrears in lumpsum despite a lukewarm response of the defaulters to the same offer made by him last year.

He also announced immediate amendment to the building bylaws for making the construction of underground and overhead water reservoirs mandatory in all the new buildings.

He said that the construction of water reservoirs in houses had become necessary in view of the fast depletion of the aquifer. He said that Wasa could reduce its tubewell operation hours from 18 hours a day to nine hours a day in case water reservoirs were built in the houses.

Opening the discussion on the matter Advocate Zulfiqar said that the sanitation fee imposition was double taxation because the property tax was already being recovered from the citizens for meeting the expenditure on sanitation.

District Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood said that the property tax was not district government tax because its proceeds were distributed among the towns. The City District Government was spending Rs700 million on sanitation but was receiving only Rs10 million in the form of sanitation fee.

He said that the CDG had started direct recovery of the fee because only a few million rupees were being received by the City District Government for the past several years while the rest was being pilfered.

Advocate Zulfiqar said that if the property tax proceeds were going to the towns, the City District Government should take the same for meeting the expenditure on sanitation instead of imposing an additional tax on the people.

Opposition leader Naveed Sadiq objected to the validation proceedings on the grounds that the matter was subjudice as the Lahore High Court had issued a notice to the City District Government on his writ petition challenging its recovery.

He said that the speaker of the National Assembly had ruled the subjudice matters could not be taken up in the assembly. He said that he would file a contempt application in the high court if the validation proceedings were continued.

District Naib Nazim Farooq Amjad Mir said that he was the speaker of the District Assembly and any ruling in respect of discussion on any issue in it would be given by him.

Malik Shahid Aslam said the federal as well as the provincial government had announced not to levy any new tax on the people by the City District Government was acting otherwise. He said that the matter should be referred to a committee before validation.

Javed Iqbal said that the validation motion was ambiguous as the schedule given in it was different from the rate of fee the CDG was recovering along with the water supply bills. For example sanitation fee of Rs20 per month was prescribed for houses measuring above five marla and upto 10 marla but the occupants were being charged upto Rs486 per month instead.

Asghar Butt said that there was no justification for charging the sanitation fee at the rate of 30 per cent of water supply bill. An equitable fee rate should be prescribed exempting the owners of smaller houses from the fee.

Bashir Ahmed Butt said that people living in two marla houses in his union council were receiving sanitation fee bills of Rs70 per month whereas the occupants of houses measuring upto five marla were required to pay only Rs10 month. This was sheer loot.

Labour councillor Muhammad Akbar said that people living in five marla houses were being asked to dish out Rs143 per month under the 30 per cent formula instead of Rs10 per month prescribed in the schedule.

The EDO (Revenue) had himself pointed out that the sanitation fee recovery was expected to increase from Rs10 million to Rs100 million per annum as a result of application of 30 per cent of water bill formula. This clearly meant 10 times increase in fee rate for the people.

District Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood said that the CDG was not imposing any new tax but want only of the fee recovery which it had already started. Naveed Sadiq said that fee recovery at the rate of 30 per cent of water supply bills was illegal as it had not been authorized by the district council.

He also accused the District Nazim of failure to fulfil the legal obligation of presenting progress reports before the house twice a year. Opposition members staged a walkout boycotting the proceedings of the house after his speech.

Speaking after the walkout, District Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood said that Wasa had to recover Rs900 million from the defaulters, including the government departments.

He had been advised to award a contract for recovery of the arrears against 30 per cent commission but he had decided to offer 30 per cent concession to the defaulters instead. The CDG revenue department had recovered Rs3 million in the form of land revenue against a recovery target of Rs8 million.

He said that the CDG had made the largest-ever purchase of 77 trucks, armrolls and loaders in its history from the funds provided by the provincial government.

The purchase of vehicles for the conservancy fleet had been made after 15 years. The CDG was also procuring 200 garbage containers. Every union council would now have its own truck.

The Nazim referred Asgha Butt's complain in respect of his arrest on arrival of Mian Shahbaz Sharif and implication in a false case to the privileges committee for report during the next session. The ordinary session of the council could not be held after the extraordinary session due to lack of quorum.