Mumbai: Bollywood actress Vidya Balan has praised the Mumbai civic body for keeping the city clean and suggested hefty fine for beach litterbugs.
Balan on Tuesday attended a special screening of her movie ‘Mission Mangal’ in Dadar which was organised by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi.
Civic officials, employees and their family members attended the screening and also interacted with the actress. “BMC people are doing a wonderful job to keep Mumbai clean by dedicating their life to serve people.
Though we have some challenges and shortcomings still we can become one of the most efficient municipal corporations in the world,” said Balan.
“We face a lot of problems, but we won’t be as good as we are, without BMC. As a citizen, we need to support the BMC, and we can do it,” she said. Balan appealed to the civic body to levy hefty fine on those who litter beaches in Mumbai.
“Mumbai is the heartbeat of the country. Litterbugs should realise what they are doing,” she added.
Mangal declared ‘tax-free’ in Maharashtra
In a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the finance dept approved to refund the amount of Goods and Service Tax (GST) collected from the sale of tickets of the film ‘Mission Mangal’.
The film has an ensemble cast of Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Sonakshi Sinha and Taapsee Pannu and tells the story of India’s Mangalyaan or first Mars orbiter mission and the contribution of Indian Space Research Institute (ISRO)’s women scientists on the success of the mission.
As a result the finance department have waived off the GST on the film expecting the story of Indin scientists to reach out to a wider audience. The GST waiver is valid from the day of decision (August 28) to December 31 respectively.
The state’s tax commissioner of the GST department have also been intimated about the cabinet’s decision on the film’s tax refund. BMC employees welcomed the special screening initiative.
