Even 30 years after her death, noted litterateur Mahadevi Verma seems alive to Allahabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). AMC's house tax department has issued a notice in the name of Verma, asking her to appear in person, and deposit pending house tax of Rs 44,816 failing which her house at Nevada, Ashok Nagar, would be attached.
The notice, dated November 4, 2017 was handed to the Pandey family that presently resides in the house. Two years before her death, Mahadevi Verma had set up a trust - Sahitya Sahkaar Nyas - and had donated all her property including her 327/114 Nevada house to it.
Presently, Rani Pandey, wife of late Ramji Pandey, resides in the house with her children. She was 30 when she moved in the outhouse of the house. Her father-in-law, the famous critic Ganga Prasad Pandey, a native of Kothi, Satna, had been living in the house since long before.
"I had been with Mahadevi ji for long. We are looking after the trust. My husband paid the house tax till 1998. After that we got no bill and this notice was delivered by hand on Friday," said Rani Pandey.
We thought that since my father had submitted an application to AMC, informing that the house has been donated to trust and transfer the name accordingly, we thought that we have been exempted from house tax. And now we have been served this notice. We are surprised as AMC has asked Mahadevi ji to appear in person, said Rani's elder son Brijesh.
However, AMC officials said that they have done nothing wrong in sending the notice.
Chief tax assessment officer PK Mishra said, "As per our records, Mahadevi Verma is the owner of the house and accordingly we served the notice in her name. The present occupant, who now claims that it is trust property, never submitted any application informing us of the development."
'If they apply now, we will table in the Sadan which has the power to exempt house tax,' he added.