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.