Urban News

The Mohali Municipal Council’s (MC) annual budget, with income proposals of Rs 37.07 crore for the coming fiscal (2010-11), has failed to get approval at a special meeting of the MC on Friday.

The MC House, with a majority vote, resolved to make necessary changes and table the revised copy in its next meeting after a municipal councillor from Ward 27 Kuljit Singh Bedi raised several discrepancies in it.

The proposed budget, with a total of Rs 4277.58 lakh, after carrying forward Rs 570.58 lakh as income, had a provision of spending Rs 29.6 crore on development works, Rs 1074.56 lakh on establishment and Rs 150 lakh on emergency works. The next year’s budget was 15.44 per cent more than Rs 32.11 crore budget for 2009-10. At a meeting, chaired by president Rajinder Rana, Bedi submitted a detailed note raising questions on limiting provision of income from advertisements, rent and composition fees and raising almost Rs 1 crore expenditure on sanitation contract.

Agreeing with Bedi, who suggested means and ways to increase the council’s income and curtail expenditure, 19 of the 31 councillors resolved to postpone the budget approval today and discuss its revised copy in the next meeting.

At a separate general House meeting, the civic body resolved, by majority vote, not to approve the leftover development works in the last meeting of December 29 and approve only those development works pertaining to the areas represented by the SAD-backed opposition group. Though the Congress-backed ruling group, which was presently in minority with 12 councillors and MLA Balbir Sidhu as ex-officio member, raised a hue and cry the opposition seemed satisfied since they faced similar treatment when they were in a minority.

The council also approved the cases of 56 applicants, who were found eligible for old-age, widow, disabled and dependent pension schemes.

Against the budget of Rs 2202.5 lakh for 2009-10, the council’s next year’s income provisions have been cut down by 46.76 per cent. While the civic body has slashed Rs 10 crore, which was included as proposed income in current budget, from the sale of municipal properties, the proposed income from share in excise duty has been reduced by Rs 40 lakh and that of water and sewerage charges by Rs 7 lakh.

Justifying the cut, MC Executive Officer (EO) Vijay Kumar Gupta told Newsline that with not a single municipal property was sold during the current year, the proposed income from this head has been deleted while due to non-receipt of even a single penny from the state government as share in excise duty against proposed income of Rs 70 lakh in 2009-10, the same head was reduced to Rs 30 lakh. The council hiked the proposed income from building fee and external development charges to Rs 520 lakh in next year against Rs 500 lakh in 2009-10. Faring badly in the current year, the civic body could generate only Rs 869.5 lakh as income till January 31, which was 39.47 per cent of the total budgetary provisions for this year.

The approved budget for 2010-11 earmarked Rs 666.85 lakh on development works, including Rs 431.85 lakh as non-committed works and Rs 235 lakh as committed projects.