Mayor D Venkatesh Murthy will be creating history of sorts by
presenting the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) budget on July
20, the second in his tenure, months after his term officially ended. In
such a situation, normally the chairperson of the Standing Committee on
Taxation and Finance would present the budget.

A notification
issued by the Urban Development under-secretary on Tuesday stated that
BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana had written to them on the budget
presentation. In his letter, the Commissioner had stated that the
mayor’s election was not held and standing committees not constituted.
This had delayed the presentation of the budget for 2013-14. Now that
three months of the present financial year had passed, the BBMP had been
maintaining salaries, pensions and solid waste management expenditure
through 30 per cent of votes-on-account.

Further, the notification
stated that as per Sections 166-170 of the Karnataka Municipal
Corporation Act, the Standing Committee on Taxation and Finance had to
present the draft budget to the council three weeks prior to the new
financial year. Thus, by the end of March, the draft budget had to be
presented. The council had to approve the same and send it to the state
government for its nod. But, for 2013-14, as there was a writ petition
pending before the High Court regarding the mayor’s election, polls for
the same had not been conducted.

But as per Section 10(2) of the
KMC Act, the mayor and deputy mayor shall hold office for a year or
continue till their successors are elected. However, the Act does not
specify anything on the mayor conducting the council meeting during this
period.

The notification also stated that as three months of the
financial year were over, the BBMP does not have any power to spend
money allotted for 2013-14. Now that the monsoon has arrived, the BBMP
needs to take up works to avoid rain-related damage.

The
government has also noticed that the BBMP does not have funds to spend
for essential works, including salaries for staff. “The government is
considering this as a special and critical situation and has directed
the mayor to present a realistic budget based on revenue generation,”
the notification stated and asked the mayor to call for a special
council meeting.