The Hindu 20.01.2011
Polls advance civic budget to Feb.
January 20th, 2011
Jan. 19: Chennai corporation’s budget session has been
advanced due to Assembly elections. Mayor M. Subramanian, who chaired a
budget review meeting at Ripon Buildings on Wednesday, said the civic
budget would be tabled by February 15.
The corporation council, for the last four years, has
neither revised the tax nor introduced a new tax component. Addressing
reporters, the mayor said last year the corporation budget announced 122
new schemes; of this, more than 100 welfare schemes have been
implemented. The remaining announcements will be implemented before the
middle of February. The officials have been instructed to speed up the
pending proposals and the overall performance of the corporation
departments was assessed.
In two days, a high-level meeting will be held to discuss
new ideas regarding the ensuing budget, and, subsequently, an all-party
meeting will also be called, he said.
When asked whether the new budget will focus on
infrastructure, Mr Subramanian said several major projects like
construction of new flyovers and micro and macro drain works were under
way, and the corporation will focus more on completing these projects
and thrust will be given to health and education sectors.
Corporation sources opined that with implementing the
sixth pay commission recommendations and the expenditure of the civic
body shooting up due to new schemes announced in the previous budgets,
the pressure is high on the revenue department to ensure that the
financial burden of the corporation is met through its annual tax
collection.
However, as usual, the budget will focus on health and
education sectors and with elections round the corner, the civic body is
all set to present a tax-free budget, sources added. Corporation
commissioner D. Karthikeyan, deputy commissioners Anu George, Darez
Ahamed and M. Balaji, along with senior engineers took part in the
budget review meeting.