Amidst the opposition’s claims that there are little or no new
development projects announced in the budget, the annual financial
outlay of Rs 1,077.63 crore of the City Corporation for the financial
year 2014-15 was passed on Tuesday.

In the less-than-an-hour-long
council meeting, no head-wise discussion was held on the budget
proposals also. The Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) councillors
failed to put forward any new proposals for a budget they had claimed
to be a rewind of the previous year’s version.

As soon as the
discussion began, opposition councillor K Maheswaran Nair pointed out an
error in the budget data which led to a ruckus in the council.
Meanwhile, some of the UDF councillors demanded voting as they said that
if the difference in the data is rectified, the budget may turn a
deficit budget. However, Mayor K Chandrika gave the ruling for voting
and the budget was passed with 49 votes against 36.

According to
the Municipality Act, 5 per cent of the total revenue should be
earmarked for developmental activities and 2 per cent for poverty
eradication. The opposition claimed that this has been included in the
revenue expenditure but not in the capital amount.

The start of
the council meeting was delayed by half-an-hour as the members,
including the Mayor, arrived late. The proceedings did not last for more
than one hour and the budget was passed without any amendments or the
inclusion of new projects. During the discussion, the Mayor admonished
the lackadaisical attitude shown by the councillors and criticised them
for creating disorder.

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 the budget was prepared with
mere political intentions. The finance committee deliberately brought
an error in the budget so that they could hide the shortfall, he
alleged.