Amidst stiff protest from the opposition UDF members, the City
Corporation budget for the financial year 2013-14 was passed on
Wednesday. As a continuation of the uproarious scenes during the budget
discussion held on Tuesday, the Opposition UDF members began
sloganeering right from the beginning of the session in the morning.

During
the din, Mayor K Chandrika declared that the budget was passed by
including some suggestions put forward in the discussion held the other
day and also adding to her budget speech the reopening of the
Vilappilsala garbage plant as per the Supreme Court order and starting
mini garbage plants in the city with government assistance.

 \The
head-level discussions could not be carried out on the day and the
session lasted only for a few minutes. The UDF members, who then moved
out of the Council Hall raising slogans, staged a dharna in front of the
Corporation office and burned copies of the budget.

 Addressing
the dharna, UDF leader Johnson Joseph said that proposals have been
devised without taking into account the Corporation’s Own Fund. UDF
councillor Mujeeb Rahman said that the budget does not clearly state the
source of income to implement the proposals and asked how it was
planned to carry out the proposals.

Mayor’s response

Responding
to the tension that erupted in the council during the budget discussion
the other day, Mayor K Chandrika, in a press conference here on
Wednesday, said that the opposition front reacted that way as it could
not come up with pertinent suggestions at the discussion.

 “Many
councillors had not done a detailed study of the budget and those who
were expected to make relevant comments also disappointed,” said
Chandrika. Replying to a question on whether action would be taken
against those who sparked tension, the Mayor said that none among the
opposition front were bad at creating the ruckus.

 Citing the
pipe-compost plan as one example, the Mayor tried to justify the civic
body, which is blamed of adopting a slow pace in implementing the
projects. Chandrika accused the government of making people show a lack
of interest towards the pipe-compost plan.

 “Believing the
government’s claim on establishing decentralised waste treatment plants
in the city, the people who showed much interest in installing
pipe-compost units initially later withdrew from demanding more. Hence,
the City Corporation could install only 51,400 units thus far. In
Chalai, it was said that the plant would be set up by March and nothing
has been done so far,” said the Mayor. She added that the service of the
mobile incinerator was not provided even during the Attukal Pongala to
manage the waste.