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Chandigarh: BJP councillors protest as mayor presents MC budget at F&CC meet
The BJP councillors labelled the budget presentation “invalid” due to lack of prior discussion in the F&CC, as is the norm. Despite BJP’s objections, the mayor defended the decision, terming it “post facto approval”, as the budget had already been approved by the MC House on March 6
Chandigarh Amid protests from BJP councillors, mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor tabled Chandigarh municipal corporation’s annual budget in the finance and contract committee (F&CC) meeting on Wednesday.
The BJP councillors labelled the budget presentation “invalid” due to lack of prior discussion in the F&CC, as is the norm. Despite BJP’s objections, the mayor defended the decision, terming it “post facto approval”, as the budget had already been approved by the MC House on March 6.
The F&CC meeting was held under the chairmanship of the mayor and attended by municipal commissioner Anindita Mitra, along with committee members Jaswinder Kaur, Lakhbir Singh, Maheshinder Singh Sidhu, Ram Chander Yadav and Taruna Mehta.
BJP councillor Maheshinder Singh Sidhu said, “The budget was not part of the official agenda but was tabled later, when we were not even given enough time to read it. Does the INDIA bloc want to hide something as we were not even given enough time to read it and the mayor was in a tearing hurry to get it passed without any discussion. This also means that the mayor concedes that the March 6 meeting was invalid. BJP disapproves of mayor’s illegal ways of conducting MC proceedings and he should again call a valid budget meeting.”
Meanwhile, the mayor said, “The decision of the budget meeting is pending with local bodies secretary. Presenting budget in F&CC was a rule that we followed. The House has already approved the budget and so did the F&CC on Wednesday.”
Citing that the budget cannot be presented before a discussion by the F&CC, the BJP councillors had requested UT local bodies secretary (SLG) to defer the budget meeting on March 6. Following legal advice from UT’s standing counsels, the MC secretary had requested the mayor to cancel the meeting on March 6, but the mayor proceeded to convene it and passed the MC budget. Following this, the local bodies secretary had sought an explanation from the municipal commissioner, who then clarified that it was the mayor’s call to convene the meeting.
At the Wednesday meeting, F&CC also approved two sanitation booths for safai karamcharis for assembly, relaxation, meal breaks and lockers. The booths will be provided at different locations at an estimated cost of ₹49 lakh. The committee approved around 30 other development projects.
