Q5 of 7 Page 63

How does the Municipal Corporation earn the money to do its work?

The Municipal Corporation collects money in different ways. A tax is a sum of money people pay to the government for the services the government provides. People pay several kinds of taxes to the government for example; People who own homes have to pay property tax as well as taxes for water and other services. There are taxes on education facilities and other amenities.


More from this chapter

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3

Who is a Municipal Councillor?

 4

What did Gangabai do and why?

 6

Discuss

In the two photographs you see different ways of collecting and disposing garbage.


i) Which way do you think provides safety to the person disposing garbage?


ii) What are the dangers of collecting garbage in the manner shown in the first photograph?


iii) Why do you think that proper ways of disposing garbage are not available to those who work in municipalities?


Photo 1



Photo 2


 7

Several poor people in the city work as domestic servants as well as work for the Corporation, keeping the city clean. Yet the slums in which they live are quite filthy. This is because these slums seldom have any water and sanitation facilities. The reason often given by the Municipal Corporation is that the land in which the poor have set up their homes does not belong to them and that slum-dwellers do not pay taxes. However people living in middle class neighbourhoods pay very little in taxes compared to the amount of money the corporation spends on them in setting up parks, street lighting facilities, regular garbage collection etc. Also as you read in this chapter, the property taxes collected by the Municipality makes up only 25-30 per cent of its money. Why do you think it is important that the Corporation should spend more money on slum localities? Why is it important that the Municipal Corporation provide the poor in the city with the same facilities that the rich get?