The BBMP has announced that it will present its annual budget on Monday. This will be the first budget to be presented on time by the ruling BJP in the BBMP Council.

Mayor B S Sathyanarayana  told reporters on Monday that a draft of the budget is ready. M S Shivaprasad, chairman of the BBMP’s Taxation and Finance Committee, will present it.

 “The budget will be discussed for three days from February 20 and after getting approval will be sent to the government by February 25. I hope the government will approve it soon,” the Mayor said.

When asked about the size of the budget, he said it will be smaller than that of previous years. “We are trying to present a budget with an outlay of `7,500 crore. This will be a realistic budget,” Sathyanarayana added.

Interestingly, District In-charge Minister R Ramalinga Reddy claimed he was not informed about the budget date. He emphasised that if the Council presented a realistic budget, it would be approved within a week.

However, opposition leader in the Council Manjunath Reddy termed the budget a gimmick ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

“They (BJP) have not informed us about presenting the budget. They are supposed to give us the draft seven days before presenting it. They should have called an all-party meeting before preparing it. I am sure this budget will be presented for the sake of publicity as Lok Sabha elections are round the corner,” he said. Referring to last year’s budget, Reddy  said only 38 per cent of the proposals were implemented.