Mohali MC passes ₹176-crore budget with no new taxes

The Mohali municipal corporation on Friday approved a budget of ₹176 crore for financial year 2024-25 while announcing no new tax or projects.

At ₹176 crore, the civic body estimates an equal income and expenditure in the upcoming fiscal.

The budget was presented during a special budget meeting at the MC office in Sector 68, held under the chairmanship of mayor Amarjit Singh Sidhu.

It will now be sent to the Punjab local bodies department for final approval. In 2023-24, MC had approved a budget of ₹173 crore, but received only ₹140 crore from the Punjab local bodies department.

As a result, this time, the budget for construction and carpeting of roads has been slashed from ₹14 crore in 2023-24 to ₹6.50 crore. Instead, the budget for the construction of footpaths has been increased from ₹14 crore to ₹18 crore. Similarly, MC plans to spend ₹15 crore against ₹9 crore last year on solid waste management as part of its efforts to further improve the city’s Swachh Survekshan ranking.

Having dropped to the 113th rank last year, Mohali made a strong comeback by climbing 31 spots to secure the 82nd position among 446 cities with a population over 1 lakh in the 2023 Swachh Survekshan rankings, released in January this year.

MC also plans to double down on upkeep of parks, for which it has set aside ₹10 crore, up from ₹3.5 crore last fiscal. ₹60 lakh were also approved for the dog sterilisation programme to rein in the stray dog menace.

The corporation’s main earnings will be from Punjab municipal funds, property tax, advertisement fee, excise duty, and water and sewerage bills. In the current fiscal, till December 2023, MC’s income was ₹97 crore, which is expected to rise to ₹139 crore by March 31, 2024.

During the meeting, the councillors also demanded the status of money received from the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority for the development works in the city. On this, the mayor said, “GMADA was to pay us ₹50 crore, but we only got ₹6 crore from them. We also did not get ₹10 crore owed for municipal tax on electricity. We will write to them again.”

MC fixes ‘shagun’ amount to be given to eunuchs

Acting on several complaints by residents regarding eunuchs harassing them by demanding hefty amounts during functions, MC fixed the “shagun” amount to be paid to them.

The House capped the amount at ₹3,100 for marriage functions and ₹2,100 for the birth of a child.

On the decision’s implementation, the mayor said, “We will write to the senior superintendent of police (SSP) for its implementation. People can approach MC and police if they are being charged a higher amount.”

Last month, the Kharar municipal council had also fixed similar amounts.

Deputy mayor Kuljeet Singh Bedi said, “Some residents’ welfare associations have filed written complaints against eunuchs demanding exorbitant amounts during functions, leading to harassment and embarrassment before guests. Therefore, the agenda was tabled in the House and the amount was fixed.”

According to resident bodies, some even demand up to ₹70,000 per function. Turning up uninvited, the eunuchs routinely make a nuisance by dancing to loud drums and tambourines, threatening to invoke curses on the newly wed couple and first-born child unless paid a “fee”, they said.

Jyoti, a eunuch in Mohali, welcomed MC’s decision, stating it will also keep a check on fake eunuchs harassing residents.

MC approves vigilance inquiry into allotment of advertisement tender

During the budget meeting, MC also approved the agenda to seek a vigilance inquiry into the allotment of advertisement tenders.

The nod came after councillors demanded to know how the civic body failed to achieve its proposed income of ₹31 crore last year through advertisement tenders, earning just ₹6.11 crore, despite advertisement hoardings being allotted across the city.

Cutting across party lines, the councillors demanded a vigilance inquiry in unison.

While raising the issue, councillor and former deputy mayor Manjit Singh Sethi said, “MC has shown in its budget document that ₹6.11 crore were earned from advertisements in financial year 2023-24, whereas all advertisement sites were occupied throughout the year.”

“We doubt something fishy in the allotment of tenders and high-level corruption under this budget head,” he said, demanding a vigilance inquiry.

Countering the allegations, MC commissioner Navjot Kaur said MC floated advertisement tenders four times, but did not get any bidders. Therefore, MC adopted the ₹11 crore budget from financial year 2022-23 and also could not increase the sites.

Anticipating low response from bidders, MC had divided the city into four zones, setting respective reserve prices to allow bidders to apply separately, she said, adding that the proposal in this regard had been sent to the local bodies department and a response was awaited.

“Once the local bodies department approval is in, tenders will be called again,” she shared.

Zone 1 comprises Sectors 54, 55, 56, 56-A, 57, 58, 72 and 73, with a tender amount of ₹5.73 crore, while Zone 2 includes Sectors 51, 52, 53, 60, 61, 61, 69, 70 and 71 with a tender amount of ₹12.62 crore.

Having a tender price of ₹7.49 crore, Sectors 48, 49, 50, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67 and 68 will fall under Zone 3; and Sectors 74 to 80 and Sohana under Zone 4, with proposed tender fee of ₹5.17 crore, the MC commissioner further detailed.