No MCG budget meeting, 2020-21 draft budget sent to ULB for approval

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has forwarded its draft 2020-21 budget to the directorate of Urban Local Bodies (ULB) for approval, officials said Friday.

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has forwarded its draft 2020-21 budget to the directorate of Urban Local Bodies (ULB) for approval, officials said Friday.

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Officials said due to the Covid-19 lockdown and Section 144 of the CrPc being imposed in Haryana, which restricts gatherings of more than five people, the MCG’s plan to hold a budget meeting on Friday could not be carried out. Instead MCG commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh reviewed suggestions made by councillors during two pre-budget meetings held earlier this month, incorporated some of them and forwarded the draft budget to the ULB for final approval.

“Based on discussions with councillors, we have sent the 2020-21 draft budget to the ULB for final approval. The health of our staff and officials is of utmost importance and hence, the upcoming fiscal’s budget was done without a formal meeting to minimise human interaction,” said the MCG commissioner.

Officials said that they were waiting for directions from the state government on whether the budget meeting can be deferred to next month or the draft budget can be finalised as the budget for 2020-21 after reviewing and incorporating suggestions of councillors, without holding a formal budget meeting.

Subsequently, the ULB said that the draft budget can be altered to incorporate suggestions and forwarded for approval.

Officials said that the MCG has set an annual budget of around ₹2,100 crore for 2020-21 fiscal, the highest for any public body in Haryana.

Of this, around ₹1,300 crore has been reserved for collection and ₹800 crore for expenditure, said officials.

MCG officials revealed the biggest jump in comparison to 2019-20 fiscal, is the funds reserved for the operation and maintenance category, which is essentially the MCG looking after its existing civic amenities and improving sanitation. Under this category, the MCG has more than doubled its funds’ allocation to around ₹700 crore for 2020-21 fiscal against ₹300 crore in 2019-2020 fiscal.

MCG officials had earlier revealed that they are looking at adopting the waste collection and disposal mechanism of the municipal corporation of Indore into Gurugram and that a high number of funds would be reserved in the upcoming fiscal for it.

Last week, the MCG had decided to call off its three-day budget meeting set for March 27-29, along the lines of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, for discussing each category and subcategory of the budget in comprehensive detail. It would have been the first time a budget meeting for any public body would take place for longer than a day.

After calling off the three-day meeting, mayor Madhu Azad had said that meeting may take place on Friday, albeit a one-day affair for a short duration with only “essential” councillors and senior MCG officials at a yet-to-be-decided venue, which had been sanitised and disinfected before the meeting.

However, with the three-week national lockdown to combat the spread of Covid-19, the one-day meeting has also been called off.