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Revised budget not passed: Mayor accuses LMC officials of presenting fudged figures
lkoreportersdesk@htlive.com
lkoreportersdesk@htlive.com
LUCKNOW The meeting of Lucknow Municipal Corporation’s executive committee on Monday exposed the differences of opinion between mayor Sanyukta Bhatia and municipal commissioner Indramani Tripathi.
The mayor and executive members accused municipal officials of presenting ‘fudged figures’ in the revised budget, while the municipal commissioner defended them.
As a result, the revised budget was not passed by the executive committee and the next meeting of the committee was called on March 7. All proposals related to road construction, repairs of drains and cleaning of nullahs were put on hold.
Municipal commissioner Indramani Tripathi objected to the mayor’s allegation that LMC officials were not presenting the correct balance sheet. He tried to defend the chief accounts officer and finance officer who prepared the revised budget.
The revised budget of Rs 1920.84 crore was presented, but the executive committee members opposed the figures presented. Figures related to construction works were shown at Rs 122 crore in September, but in December the expenses were shown as Rs 73.83 crore.
The mayor was critical about recovery of Rs 172 crore house tax against the target of Rs 335 crore.
Bhatia said, “I am elected to safeguard the interests of the common man who pay taxes, but LMC officials don’t bother to present correct figures. We will not tolerate fudging of figures in the budget. They must realise that all development projects will be stalled, if they continue to hide real figures from us.”
Municipal commissioner Indramani Tripathi said, “I have always defended LMC officials because I believe they can make mistakes but cannot fudge figures.”
