The Hindu 28.03.2013
Councillors castigate ‘impractical’ Budget
The Kottayam Municipality on Wednesday conducted a
discussion on the annual Budget presented for the financial year 2013-14
during which some councillors cutting across political lines expressed
concern that many projects proposed were “high in impracticality and low
on relevance”.
However, while the general feeling in
the ruling UDF front was that the Budget was “to be emulated by other
local bodies in the State”, councillors belonging to the LDF camp
remained firm on their opinion that the Municipal authorities attempted
to take credit for many projects initiated by the Central and State
governments.
Hot topics
Among
the major topics that occupied centre-stage during the debate was the
alleged neglect meted out towards Nattakom and Kumaranalloor, two
erstwhile grama panchayats that were merged to the Municipality a few
years ago. According to Councillor Jayasree Prasannakumar, who
represents the Puthettu ward in Kumaranalloor, various proposals had
been put forth for exploiting the tourism potential of the region.
This included developing a park by the river bank near the Forest Depot at Parampuzha as well as launching boat services.
Councilor
T.C. Roy, representing S.H. Mount, pointed out that the Municipality
was yet to fulfill its assurance, made in the previous Budget of
providing aids for fishermen in the
region. The
Budget does not make any mention in this regard. Furthermore, there has
been no significant welfare measure announced for paddy farmers in the
region, the councillors said.
Dream projects
There
were also criticisms made against many of the dream projects including
constructing a foot overbridge with escalators. According to a section
of the councillors, the Budget should instead have focused upon
improving the basic amenities and resolving the problem of water
scarcity.