The palike had pinned its hopes on the bill to raise Rs 800 crore for paying the bills of a number of projects to be taken up in the city.

The Akrama Sakrama Bill aims at a one-time regularisation of illegal structures and layouts in the city.

The Governor’s decision to send back the Bill has put the Palike in a quandary, almost dashing its hopes of realising any projects announced in this year’s Rs 8,848 crore budget.

Mayor S K Nataraj said he was unable to comprehend why it had been sent back.

Asked whether development works would suffer because of this, he said “no” and expressed confidence that other sources will be tapped for them.

But he did not elaborate on how the gap of Rs 800 crore would be filled.

Opposition leader in the BBMP council M Nagaraj criticised the ruling BJP and the people of the city have been “duped” by the government.

Seconding the Governor’s decision to return the Bill, he said it had not been discussed at any public forums or the Legislature and was hence sent back.

“The ruling party would not be able to execute even 70 per cent of the promises made in the budget,” he said and added that the people will suffer because of their incompetence.

The Akrama Sakrama scheme was first proposed during the SM Krishna government and the Bill has been returned by the Raj Bhavan a number of times seeking clarity.

The ruling BJP had used the scheme as a focal point in their election strategy in the recent Palike elections.

The BJP had claimed that the implementation of this scheme would help more than 5 lakh households and generate more than  Rs 10,000 crore for the state.