Mokokchung, October 20 (MExN): Touted as a young upcoming politician in Nagaland, former DMC Chairperson Khekaho Assumi challenged the young people to advise their parents to pay taxes so that development activities can be carried out in the towns by the concern authority, especially the municipal bodies.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 18th Inter District & Nagaland Table Tennis Tournament 2010 here on Tuesday evening, the former DMC Chairperson Khekaho Assumi narrated the example of Dimapur Municipal Council to underscore the importance of taxes in the society. Pointing out that a lot of garbage is turned out every day in a place like Dimapur, Khekaho Assumi said that the DMC collected `10 as ‘sanitation tax’ from each household. He said that the Sanitation Taxes amounts to ` 20 lakhs every month. With this amount, the Dimapur Municipal Council undertakes developmental works like building of drains, roads, side-walks etc. Now, the DMC is planning to impose property taxes of “ ` 100” in Dimapur. The expected revenue from ‘property tax’ is expected to be ` 2 crore every month, he said while implying what the municipal bodies do for the welfare of the public if it earns such huge revenue every month.
“I think we need to tell our parents to pay tax,” said Khekaho Assumi. Directly hitting out at the present political system in the state dominated by old people, the forty-one year old former DMC chief - who had from time to time asserted that he will be in the Nagaland Legislative Assembly by 2013 - said that most of the politicians in the state are “as old as my father even older”.
In this connection, he maintained that the young people should join politics so that some changes can be brought in the society since the concepts of the young and the old in the society do not match at all. “With due apologies to your parents and my parents, I think your parents and my parents are too old to bring in changes. So let’s join sports and politics…lets become young MLAs…lets have that vision and venture to start it,” said Khekaho Assumi.
