UPTDC gets stay order on Shilp Gram auction

Barely a week after the Agra Municipal Corporation decided to auction off a part of the Shilp Gram in Agra, the UP Tourism Development Corporation has managed to get the auction stayed through a court order till the issue of municipal taxes on this valuable property, located just a few hundred metres away from the Taj Mahal, could be finalised.

According to the UPTDC sources, the corporation had raised its objection on the municipal taxes levied on this property in the court as the Shilp Gram was a property of the state government and the municipal corporation was charging tax rates applicable for commercial properties, which was not acceptable.

Acting on the application moved by the UPTDC, sources claimed, the court had stayed the auction organised by the Agra Municipal Corporation till the issue of applicability of municipal taxes on the property was decided.

Meanwhile, the UPTDC chairman Nawab Kazim Ali has called a meeting of the corporation officials in Lucknow where the taxation issue would be brought up for discussion.

The Agra Municipal Corporation had selected and prepared to auction off a major part of the Shilp Gram about a week back, issuing notices to the UPTDC for the recovery of municipal taxes worth over Rs 200,000 unpaid for about 15 years.

Panicked by the notice, which arrived less than a fortnight before the annual Taj Mahotsava could begin at the Shilp Gram, the UPTDC resorted to take this matter in the court, seeking temporary relief till the matter was settled amicably between the two departments.

In the past 15 years, since the Shilp Gram was handed over to the UPTDC by the state's department of Industries for the development of handicrafts industry and tourism, both the Central government and the UP Tourism have been investing heavily in this prime property.

The UP Tourism holds a ten-day tourism fest each year between February 18"�27 at the Shilp Gram spending close to Rs 10 crore annually on its development.