Chennai, Dec 24 (IANS): Faced with fierce opposition, the Greater Chennai Corporation said on Thursday that it had decided to defer indefinitely the collection of user fee for garbage clearance from property owners.

DMK President MK Stalin had hit out at the Tamil Nadu government a day earlier over the corporation's decision to levy user fee from January 1, 2021.

The Corporation Commissioner had said in a statement on Tuesday that the user fee for a residential building with built-up area up to 500 sq ft will be Rs 10 per month, for 501-1,200 sq ft Rs 25 per month, 1,201 sq ft-2,400 sq ft Rs 50 per month, and over 2,401 sq ft Rs 100 per month.

Stalin said that after awarding the contract for garbage clearance to a private company, the AIADMK government was now announcing that the residents would have to pay for collection and disposal of garbage.

Stalin noted that the user fee would also be applicable to organisers of social, religious and other events in public places, based on the number of participants (Rs 5,000 for participants less than 500, Rs 10,000 for between 501-1,000 and Rs 20,000 for participants over 1,000), which will result in a lot of problems.

The DMK leader said that religious events are held in public places, including roads, and various organisations too hold protests at such places, and that levy of charges was against democracy.