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Ignoring Chandigarh admn’s legal advice, mayor pushes ahead with budget meeting
Even as municipal commissioner Anindita Mitra and secretary Shambhu Rathee didn’t attend the meeting, the budget was presented, discussed and approved by the Chandigarh mayor in the presence of AAP and Congress councillors, having the required quorum
Notwithstanding the intimation by UT local bodies department, urging him to cancel the budget meeting based on “legal opinion”, mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor proceeded to convene the meeting on Wednesday and passed the Chandigarh municipal corporation’s budget for the financial year 2024-25.
Just eight minutes before the scheduled time of 11 am, MC secretary Shambhu Rathee issued a letter to the mayor, reading, “The legal opinion from the senior standing counsel of the UT administration suggested that the budget session or any special session cannot be called before the constitution of finance and contract committee (F&CC) as per law. You are requested to cancel the budget session scheduled on March 6 and special session scheduled for March 7.”
Following this, the mayor walked out to consult legal experts and MC officials, and after a delay of around 40 minutes, started the proceedings of the budget meeting.
Even as municipal commissioner Anindita Mitra and secretary Shambhu Rathee didn’t attend the meeting, the budget was presented, discussed and approved by the mayor in the presence of AAP and Congress councillors, having the required quorum.
“The mayor holds the authority to call and convene meetings. My legal counsels also confirmed that I could hold the budget meeting. The budget was passed for the welfare of city residents and so that salaries of MC staff are not held up. Even in the last two years, with BJP mayors at the helm, the budget was passed without presenting it before the F&CC. If today’s meeting was illegal, then the last two budgets were also passed illegally,” said Dhalor.
MC officials confirmed that as the budget had been approved in the House with required quorum, it will be sent to the UT administration for final approval. As the financial year starts from April 1, the budget should get UT’s go-ahead before March 31 to allow financial transactions under various heads.
As for the special House meeting scheduled on March 7, the mayor said it stood deferred for now. Two important agendas, including 20,000 litres of free water to each household every month and free parking in all city markets, were to come up at the meeting.
“BJP is trying to pose every possible obstacle in our way. But we won’t sit quite. For now, the special meeting has been deferred, but these promises will definitely be fulfilled for city residents,” Dhalor said.
BJP councillors skip meet
The BJP councillors, meanwhile, though present in the MC office, did not enter the Assembly Hall where the budget meeting was scheduled.
They later termed the House proceedings “illegal and invalid”, adding that the local government secretary had clearly instructed the mayor to cancel the meeting.
A day before, on Tuesday, citing that the budget cannot be presented before a discussion by the F&CC, the BJP councillors had written to the UT local bodies secretary and MC commissioner to defer the budget meeting. After receiving the councillors’ written request, the local bodies department had sent it to the standing counsels for legal opinion.
BJP councillor Saurabh Joshi said, “How can the budget meeting be considered legal when MC commissioner and MC secretary were not present to convene it, and the administration had asked that it be cancelled? The proceedings of the meetings are invalid and so is the budget.”
“It can at best be termed as a private meeting of AAP and Congress councillors and not an official meeting of the corporation. Therefore no MC officer or BJP councillor attended it. All expenses incurred on today’s private meeting of AAP and Congress councillors should be recovered from the mayor,” said BJP councillor Maheshinder Singh Sidhu.
‘BJP obstructing MC’s functioning’
Congress councillor Gurpreet Singh Gabi said, “The BJP is intentionally obstructing MC’s functioning. It wants to linger on the meeting till the code of conduct for Lok Sabha is enforced, so that no new project is approved. If the budget was postponed today, thousands of MC employees would have not received their salaries till Lok Sabha results.”
“Why does the BJP remember rules only when it comes to AAP? Why didn’t they abide by rules in the last two years when BJP mayors approved the budget directly without F&CC meetings and even when presiding officer Anil Masih invalidated eight votes in the mayoral polls? The BJP is scared that AAP will bring development agendas of free water and free parking in Chandigarh before the Lok Sabha polls,” said AAP councillor Prem Lata.
Health, education get bigger pie in ₹2,325-crore budget
Prioritising public health, education, solid waste management, vending zones and development of villages, the Chandigarh municipal corporation House passed a ₹2,325-crore budget for financial year 2024-25.
Led by INDIA bloc mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor, the 17 AAP and Congress councillors unanimously passed the budget in a special meeting, which was skipped by the 17 BJP councillors.
Pinning its hopes on more grant-in-aid from the Centre and reimbursement of electricity duty from the UT administration, the ₹2,325 crore budget was approved against an estimated expenditure of ₹1,885 crore.
The mayor said, “To further strengthen the health infrastructure, a budget of ₹2 crore has been provisioned this year, as compared to just ₹10 lakh last year. Under this, ‘Chandigarh clinics’ will be opened on the lines of Mohalla Clinics in Delhi. A budget of ₹1 crore has also been kept aside for setting up libraries in all community centres to elevate city’s education level.”
“The INDIA bloc is committed to cleaning up the entire landfill in Dadumajra by June this year. A budget of ₹37.50 crore has been kept for solid waste management, including construction of a bio-methanation plant in the cow shed located at Raipur Kalan. A budget of ₹72 crore has been kept for laying tertiary treated water pipelines inside the city. Through this, tertiary treated water will be supplied to more than 1,900 gardens, parks and green belts,” Dhalor said.
“This year, for the first time in the history of Chandigarh, people will get drinking water 24 hours a day. Manimajra residents will get 24-hour water supply from June this year. For which a budget of ₹50 crore has been kept,” the mayor said, adding that water connections will be provided to all houses outside Lal Dora limits this year.
Dhalor further said a budget of ₹7.40 crore had been provided for modern urban facilities and further expansion of infrastructure in Kaimbwala, Dhanas, Khudda Jassu, Khudda Lahore, Khudda Alisher and Sarangpur villages. Another ₹6 crore will be spent on maintenance of EWS colonies, which was just ₹2.88 crore last year.
“We will talk to the UT administration and bring the EWS colonies under MC,” Dhalor said. Also, this year, a budget of ₹17.10 crore has been assigned for vendors in the city, an increase from ₹10.10 crore last year.
While the corporation had demanded ₹1,651.7 crore as grant-in-aid (GIA) for the upcoming fiscal, it was allocated only ₹560 crore in the interim budget announced on February 1. In the MC budget, the total revenue for the upcoming fiscal has been pegged at ₹2,325.21 crore, including the demanded ₹1,651.7 crore as GIA, while the total expenditure is estimated to be ₹1,885.3 crore.
MC’s own revenue receipts targets are lesser than last year’s target. In the coming fiscal, MC targets to generate ₹633 crore, while last year, the target was set at ₹793 crore. But MC revealed that the revised estimate receipts in 2023-24 were ₹530 crore.
The corporation’s overall expenditure is similar to last year, but under capital head (used for carrying out development works in the city), MC will spend ₹420 crore this year. Last year, ₹465 crore was estimated to be spent under capital head, but revised expenditure was only ₹236 crore.
Congress councillor Gurpreet Gabi said, “More funds should be allocated for MC employees’ welfare and to provide them assistance in case of disabilities or casualties.”
Congress councillor Sachin Galav said, “Just like winter, a budget should be allocated for setting up night shelters in summer for the welfare of homeless people.”
The mayor also announced the launch of “Mayor Aap Ke Dwar Pe” campaign for stronger grievance redressal system in the city. Under this, the problems of the people will be heard one by one in every ward and every possible effort will be made to solve them, he said.
BJP protests addition of new portraits in mayor’s office
The BJP has taken exception to AAP’s move of fixing pictures of Bhagat Singh, Dr BR Ambedkar, Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann in the mayor’s office while moving the photos of Mahatma Gandhi, President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit and city MP Kirron Kher to another wall.
“The photos of the President, PM, MP and governor were fixed behind the mayor’s chair in the office for years, but those were removed and fixed on another wall. The pictures were replaced with AAP leaders. This action of the mayor is very shameful. The mayor should know that according to the constitutional protocol, the photos of Mahatma Gandhi, President and PM should be placed behind the chair of any officer holding any constitutional post. Chandigarh is constitutionally a Union Territory and this is a gross violation of the Constitution. This is not the political office of AAP. The BJP will strongly oppose this cheap step,” said BJP leader Arun Sood.
UT asks MC chief to explain
The local bodies secretary later sought explanation from municipal commissioner Anindita Mitra on how the budget meeting was conducted when orders were given to defer it.
“Administration had supplied a copy of ‘legal opinion’ as received from the senior standing counsel and directed to take necessary action in accordance with the applicable provisions of MC Act and rules/regulations. However, it has come to the notice of this administration that in spite of above mentioned legal opinion and instructions, a meeting of the House has been conducted,” the notice said.
“Keeping in view of the above, it is directed to kindly furnish explanation as to how the meeting took place, along with applicable Rules/Act and legal position, as well as your specific recommendations in the matter to this administration immediately,” the notice further read.
Commissioner Mitra was not available for a comment despite repeated phone calls.
