Mayor presents last budget of his tenure
| Date :27-Jun-2019 |
Staff Reporter:
Budget passed with voice vote. No new tax imposed in budget
Mayor Alok Sharma tabled the last budget of his tenure during the BMC General Council meeting on Wednesday. After a long debate, the budgetary demands were passed with voice vote. No new tax has been levied on the public. The BMC General Council meet started with an uproar on stray dog menace. As the meeting started, Congress Corporator Rafiq Qureshi raising the issue of dog menace said that there have been many deaths due to stray dog attacks in the city. But the municipal corporation did not take any substantial action to resolve the issue , he alleged. Rafiq said that this issue should be discussed before the budget.
In support of his demand other Congress corporators also joined him and seeking discussion of stray dog menace in the city sat on protest in front of Chairman. Inspite of repeated request by the Chairman, Congress corporators did not go back to their seats and accordingly the Chairman assured that exclusive 10 minutes will be allotted for this discussion after the budget. Subsequent to which the Congress corporators agreed to continue with the meeting procedure. The question hour session began at 12 noon with the question of Raisa Malik, Corporator from ward number 22, asking details about hawkers’ corner in city. Her question was mainly focused on total budget allotted for hawkers corner in different wards and how many hawkers corner have been developed so far.
Total budget allotted for hawkers’ corner for 2017-18 was 5 crore and for 2018-19 6.52 crore was allotted. Hawkers’ corner is being developed at Indrapuri, Prempura, MACT but detail account of ward number and total hawkers corner developed was not provided, she said. Subsequent to which the Congress corporators thronged the well. She said that reply was not at all satisfactory and there has been corruption involved in allotting the tenders to contractors. Again the Congress corporators sat on protest and meeting was adjourned for ten minutes.
The meeting resumed with Mayor Alok Sharma asking BMC Commissioner Vijay Datta to provide a detail account of development activities for hawkers’ corner. He added that there is need to review profile of contractors and blacklist contractors who are not completing work on time. A stipulated time frame of eight days was also set by the Mayor. Congress Corporator Abdul Shafeeq Khan from ward number 14 interrupted the proceedings and asked the BMC to provide details of ward number so that clear picture can be obtained. Meeting also saw heated debate on cleanliness issue in the city. BMC Chairman stated that there is need to review cleanliness campaign in city and lenient attitude of officials with regards to cleanliness in any wards should not be tolerated.
Corporators also demanded to take back work charge from Additional Commissioner BMC Rajesh Rathore and hand over to district administration. In the afternoon session amidst ruckus and chaos Mayor Alok Sharma presented budget of Rs 2,900 crore. Presenting the budget Mayor said that the sanitation workers will be given an additional Rs 6,000. In the budget speech, Mayor talked separately about chalking out strategy for drinking water crisis.
He also mentioned about seeking extra budget for this so that a permanent solution to the problem can be maintained. With regards to monitoring of cleanliness survey he said that there is proposal to give motorcycles to BMC officials be given to monitor municipal rates to monitor the cleanliness in the city. Mayor Alok Sharma said that no extra tax was imposed on public in this budget and the city residents are expected to get relief as this budget is set accordingly. Meanwhile, the Leader of Opposition, Mohammad Sagir raised questions over the budget meeting of the council.
He said that some selected people have already pre-decided the budget and this is just a formal presentation. He also alleged that last year’s budget was Rs 1,700 crores and there is no detailed account given by concerned officials on this matter. Along with Congress councillor Rafeq Quershi he also demanded that the provision for opening sterilisation centres, feeding centres and shelter houses can be made in the budget. He also demanded that the proposal to grant permanent status of contractual employees especially cleanliness workers in municipal corporation should be passed in the meeting of corporation council.