Ludhiana MC okays ₹1,044 cr budget within 60 minutes

While the opposition continued to attack Ludhiana mayor Balkar Sandhu, municipal corporation (MC) and Congress MLAs for not being able to prompt the state government to release the pending GST instalment to the fund-starved civic body, the general house approved the budget of ₹1,044 crore for 2020-21 on Thursday.

The House meeting was held at MC’s Zone-A headquarters following which, the budget was approved following a brief debate. The proposed budget of ₹1,044 crore was approved in less than an hour.

Opposition’s grouse

The opposition rued that due to the failure of state government in releasing the pending GST instalment of about ₹195 crore besides additional excise duty, the MC was being forced to take a loan of ₹195 crore for the development projects and solid waste management.

Congress’ councillors, including the mayor, however, slammed the SAD-BJP councillors over the issue stating that the central government has failed to give the state its GST share, which further affected its allocation to the MC.

The opposition parties slammed the proposed budget by terming it a ‘Hawai Qila’ and said that the MC has fallen short of income and recovery targets by over ₹345 crore in the last fiscal.

They rued that now, the budget has further been increased from previous year’s ₹846 crore to ₹1,044 crore. The MC has recovered only around ₹500 crore against the sanctioned budget of 846 crore for 2019-20.

Leader of opposition Harbhajan Singh Dang asked how the MC was planning to meet the new targets in 2020-21, while it failed to achieve the previous goals.

“It is a failure of the local Congress leadership, including its MLAs, that they have not been able to convince the state government into sending the pending GST instalments, which would have improved the condition of fund-starved MC. Due to their failure, the MC is forced to take ₹195-crore loan to complete development projects and treat the waste accumulated at the main dumping site on Tajpur Road,” he added.

Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) councillor Swarandeep Chahal said the civic body should work to increase its income, which he claimed was not being done.

“The MC has only proposed income of ₹10 crore under the head of sale of property. However, there are several prime properties of the civic body which can be used to increase the revenue,” he added.

BJP councillor Yashpal Chaudhary also slammed the MC for its ‘inability’ to secure GST instalment due to which, he said, the civic body was not being able to pay salaries to its employees in time.

Mayor Balkar Sandhu said the MC has expedited recovery. “The property tax wing has already recovered ₹82 crore against the target of ₹100 crore. The loan of ₹150 crore is being availed to deal with the legacy waste dumped at MC’s main dumping site on Tajpur Road as the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed us to do the same,” he added.

“The remaining ₹45 crore will be used to take up development works as the central government has failed to release GST instalment to the Punjab government, which has further failed to allocate funds to the MC. The MC staff would achieve the recovery target of ₹1,044 crore,” the mayor said, while adding that the approved budget estimates would now be forwarded to the local bodies department for sanction.

‘House shouldn’t approve budget without providing details’

The budget was approved by the House, while Congress MLA Rakesh Pandey was seeking details of budget allocations. Pandey said MC officials have allocated budget and recovery targets under the head of sale of property and cow cess. “However, the officials have failed to mention which properties are being or could be sold and how the cow cess is used by the civic body,” he added.

Pandey said the House should not approve the budget before getting the details.

On this, the mayor said details would be provided in the next meeting.

Factionalism among the Congress fold again came to fore when Pandey accused the mayor of not taking the party’s MLAs and other leaders into confidence before making any major decision.

‘MC should provide masks to field staff’

Raising concern over the coronavirus, councillor Sunny Bhalla asked the MC to provide masks to its staff and also arrange ambulances for any emergency.

Prominent among those who donated their monthly salary for this purpose were mayor Sandhu, councillors Gagandeep Singh (Sunny) Bhalla, Pankaj Kaka, Mamta Ashu, Maharaj Singh Raji, Baljinder Singh Bunty, Vanit Bhatia and Seema Kapoor.

Budget allocation

As per the information available, 62.17% of the amount has been allocated for development works, 35.44% for establishment and 2.39% for other miscellaneous expenses.

In total, ₹167 crore has been earmarked for development works, while ₹77.5 crore has been set aside for maintenance.

For constructing new roads and repair of old ones, the MC has earmarked ₹113 crore, while ₹3 crore has been allocated for slums, ₹16 crore for parks, ₹40 crore for operations and maintenance and ₹15 crore for purchasing machinery.