Tala Lawi and Mi Yin Mon : The Chairman of Mudon Township, Mon state, ordered that a tax of thousands of kyat be collected on February 9th from residents of Kalort-tort village, Mudon Township. According to the Chairman, who worked in cooperation with the village’s newly trained fire-brigade, the funds will be used to purchase a fire truck for the village.
According to villagers, representatives from the Mudon Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) and members of the Kalort-tort fire-brigade collected taxes of 5,000 kyat, 10,000 kyat, and 20,000 kyat from each household in the village, depending on household income. Kalort-tort village contains over 1,000 households.
Kalort-tort residents reported that the tax collections were accompanied by counsel from the fire-brigade members regarding fire hazards and fire safety, despite the fact that the village has not fallen victim to any large-scale conflagration in recent history.
Villagers told IMNA that the fire-truck the brigade plans to purchase is Japanese, and costs between 7 and 8 million kyat.
“This village [Kalort-tort village] has never had a fire, but about seven villagers attended the fire bridge training [in Mudon Township] 3 or 4 months ago. The villagers had to pay about one million kyat for each of the trainees. That time [in November 2009] the authorities collected 2,000 and 4,000 kyat per house. They collected the money based on how wealthy the household looked. They say that buying the fire vehicle will mean security for the village,” a male villager informed IMNA.
“The former fire-brigade trainees and the village chairman will buy the fire vehicle. I don’t know which kind of vehicle, I just knew they are collecting money,” a female villager from Kalort-tort added.
Kalort-tort residents have already been required to spend money for their village fire-brigade’s apparently superfluous services. IMNA’s December 16th 2009 article covered taxes collected for Mudon Township’s government-ordered fire-brigade training; household were expected to contribute 4,000 each to the trainings, while the trainees themselves were expected to pay for their 8,000 kyat uniforms.
Fire-brigade trainings were held en-masse all over Mon State during November and December 2009. The trainings elicited widespread skepticism after it was revealed that most trainings focused largely on military technique and 2010 electoral preparation, instead of fire-fighting tactics.
