Protesting against the Government’s proposal to privatise the urban drinking water scheme and the proposal to hike the urban property tax, members of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) led by Akhil Gogoi gheraoed the office of Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) today. The Assam Government recently proposed to privatise the urban drinking water scheme and also to hike the urban property tax by manifolds. These two proposals received a lot of oppositions from many organisations and all of them demanded to scrap the two proposals. The KMSS has been protesting the two proposal right from the day it was put forward. Today, a delegation of around 100 KMSS activists thronged the GMDA premises and gheraoed the office, opposing the two proposals. “The Government, under the GMDA installed water supply pipes at various places. The roads were dug while the pipes were installed, but the authorities left the road without repairing the roads properly. The privatisation of drinking water needs to be stopped at any cost,” said Akhil Gogoi. Standing under the scorching sun for hours, when no GMDA official responded to the KMSS protest, the members of the peasant organised tried to enter the office premises. To stop this, police had to manhandle the KMSS activists and several KMSS activists including Akhil Gogoi were arrested and they were taken to Basistha and Panbazar Police Station.