The General House of Ludhiana municipal corporation (MC) approved ₹1,034 crore budget for the financial year 2022-23 amid ruckus over some “defamatory remarks” made by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s Ludhiana West MLA Gurpreet Gogi.
It was the first General House meet in Ludhiana after AAP formed the government at the state-level, and was held at Guru Nanak Bhawan on Monday.
All six newly elected AAP MLAs from the city, including Daljit Singh Grewal (Bhola) from Ludhiana East, Madan Lal Bagga from Ludhiana North, Kulwant Sidhu from Atam Nagar, Gurpreet Gogi from Ludhiana West, Ashok Prashar Pappi from Ludhiana Central and Rajinder Pal Kaur Chhina from Ludhiana South, participated in the meeting. The meeting continued for over four hours, out of which the first three hours were given to councillors to raise the problems of their wards while the last hour was dedicated to deliberations on the budget.
Gogi’s alleged defamatory remarks
During the budget discussion, Gogi objected to the building branch official’s statements that over ₹9.7 crore as change of land use (CLU) charges is pending from Ghumar Mandi area, which falls in his ward. As the argument escalated, Gogi accused the Congress and the mayor of failing to perform during the term of the previous Congress government in the state. Councillors of all parties, including Lok Insaaf Party (LIP), Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), objected to his statements against the mayor following which Gogi allegedly went on to call them (councillors) “the enemies of the city”.
While Gogi stated that his remarks were misinterpreted and that he had made the remarks only against those councillors who has failed to raise their voice for the welfare of the city, the House members termed the remarks defamatory.
{{/usCountry}}While Gogi stated that his remarks were misinterpreted and that he had made the remarks only against those councillors who has failed to raise their voice for the welfare of the city, the House members termed the remarks defamatory.
{{/usCountry}}Police had to intervene as the councillors got into a heated argument with Gogi, following which he apologised, but reiterated that his remarks were misinterpreted. Following this, there was no further discussion on the budget and it was approved by House.
Mayor Balkar Sandhu said the House has approved the budget and it will now be sent to the state government for sanction.
How city managed a surplus budget
Despite failing to achieve the recovery targets for the current financial year, the MC has approved a surplus budget of ₹2 crore, with an estimated expenditure of ₹1,032 crore and estimated income of ₹1,034 crore.
As per the approved budget, 48.65% of the budget will be spent on development works, 48.44% on establishment (salaries etc) and 2.91% on miscellaneous/contingency expenses. MC will also avail ₹100 crore loan for taking up development works in the city. The mayor stated that the fresh loan is being taken after the MC managed to pay back almost the entire sum of the previous loan of ₹200 crore.
Even as the property tax wing and O&M cell have failed to meet the recovery targets for the current year, the MC has increased the recovery targets for both the departments in the proposed budget for 2022-23. Against the target of ₹110 crore, the property tax wing has recovered around ₹85 crore as of now and the target for next year has been increased to ₹130 crore. Similarly, O&M has recovered around ₹40 crore against the target of ₹90 crore and the target for the next year has been increased to ₹100 crore.
NGOs protest outside meeting venue
A day after protesting outside the house of mayor Balkar Sandhu, different NGOs staged a protest outside the MC meeting venue, decrying the civic body’s “failure” to manage solid waste across the city. As the councillor, MLAs and mayor moved towards the meeting hall, the NGOs held their silent protest by holding placards. They even demanded the resignation of mayor and other councillors, if they are unable to improve solid waste management.
Protesters including Kapil Arora, Kuldeep Khaira, Jaskirat Singh among others stated that open dumping of garbage has become a menace across the city and the civic body has also failed in terms of waste processing.