The decision was taken today at a State-level meeting of municipal and local bodies unions, held under the chairmanship of Sada Kamatekar, Chief of the Municipal Karmachari Kamgar Sena in Mumbai. The `Retain Octroi' conference was inaugurated by Prabhakar Bansure, President of the Nagar Parishad Karmachari Mahasangh affiliated to the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (a BJP outfit).

The conference passed resolutions to stage `rasta roko' at all octroi check-posts in the jurisdiction of 228 municipal councils and 15 municipal corporations in the State from April 21 to 23, request the Government to reconsider its decision of abolishing octroi, and form a State-level `Save Octroi Committee' with Sada Kamatekar as its convenor. The committee includes representatives frommunicipal bodies in Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan, Pune, Nashik, Amravati, Ulhasnagar Jalgaon, Aurangabad and Parohani. The resolutions were carried unanimously.

Union leaders, many of them Sena activists and elected representatives of civic bodies, regretted the decision of the State Government to abolish octroi of `A', `B' and `C' class municipal councils, pointing out that it would not only push the civic bodies into a financial crisis, but also affect 4.5 lakh employees.

Speakers like Kamatekar, Banasure, Prabhakar Desai and Bal Haridas explained that though they were supporters of the Sena and the BJP, which ruled the State, they would not accept the decision to scrap octroi which was the oxygen of civic bodies.

They pointed out that as the first step, the Government had decided to abolish octroi of municipal councils, but soon it might abolish octroi of municipal corporations, too. They pointed out that such a step would lead to an unprecedented financial crisis for civic bodies all over the State, mostof which were at present not able to pay salaries to their employees.

They stated that it would also affect the quality of civic services offered by municipal bodies. They also accused the Government of pampering traders at the cost of the common man, pointing out that even if octroi were abolished, it would in no way improve the services offered by traders or reduce the prices of commodities.

There are 228 municipal bodies in the State (28 of them belonging to `A' class, 40 to `B' class and 160 to `C' class) which are facing octroi abolition.

The Rane Government had announced on March 22 that the octroi of the civic bodies would be abolished. Later, the Government shelved the decision till May 1.