BATHINDA, May 3 -- In a setback to Bathinda mayor Paramjeet Mehta, the municipal corporation on Friday put on hold his proposal to waive off the pending property tax of Rs.85 lakh of a city-based shopping mall. During today's general house meeting, councillor Sandeep Kumar was the first to object to arbitrary relaxation. Kumar said instead of pressing the mall management to clear all dues to fill the coffers of the MC, the urban local body authorities acted hastily. "The mall authorities wrote to the mayor for tax relief on March 26 and it was processed and approved in less than 15 days. About 19,500 city residents have been served notices to clear property taxes or face strict action. While the owner of a palatial shopping arcade has been given relaxation arbitrarily in tax collection," he said. Kumar got support from unexpected quarters with his proposal seconded by the municipal commissioner, Ajay Arora, a 2016-batch IAS officer. Arora remarked that the property tax waiver should not be extended only to an individual. Following opposition from different quarters, the house decided to keep the tax waiver proposal as a pending item. The crux of the matter is that management of the Peninsula Mall owes Rs.1.78 crore, including Rs.6.84 lakh interest, Rs.19.51 lakh penalty, Rs.4.36 lakh fire cess, and Rs.1.74 lakh cancer cess since 2015. On April 17, Mehta told HT that the waiver was his initiative as a part of the one-time settlement to mobilise funds from the decade-old big tax defaulter. Located on the Bathinda-Amritsar national highway, the mall was promoted by a Delhi-based HBN Dairies and Allied Limited which later went bankrupt. The mall has reportedly been lying closed since 2015. The company was alleged to have collected over Rs.1,000 crore from more than 20 lakh investors through money-pooling schemes. Following complaints of duping the investors, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) attached several properties of HBN Dairies and Allied Limited across the country, including the Peninsula Mall in Bathinda City. According to the official information, SEBI auctioned the mall on the directions of the Supreme Court and it was purchased by Ghanshayam Garg and others. Congress' Ashok Kumar was removed from the post of senior deputy mayor on Friday. In the 50-member house, 30 councillors voted against Ashok while only 10 voted in his favour. As many as 10 councillors skipped today's meeting. Kumar was ousted with the support of the rebel Congress councillors and expelled Congressmen having proximity with the BJP leader Manpreet Badal....