MCB to present Rs 137-cr budget on Mar 31

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, March 27

The Municipal Corporation Bathinda is all set to present Rs 137-crore budget for the financial year 2017-18.

The general house meeting of the MCB will be held on March 31 to discuss the last and the biggest budget of the civic body. Last year, the MCB budget was to the tune of Rs 120 crore.

The budget meeting will be a litmus test for Mayor Balwant Rai Nath as it is going to be the first meeting of the MCB after the formation of the Congress government in the state.

Congress councillors are said to be working to take over the reins of the MCB from the majority SAD-BJP in the general house.

Funds to the tune of Rs 13 crore have been earmarked for developmental works.

However, the focus is on ongoing developmental works as last year, Rs 19 crore was earmarked for these but only Rs 9 crore has been spent.

At Rs 76 crore, VAT collection will remain the main source of revenue, followed by property tax.

Mayor Balwant Rai Nath said the focus of the budget would be on completing the developmental projects initiated last year, instead of starting more development works.

He said no more tax had been imposed and budget had seen an increase of Rs 17 crore as compared to the last year.

Gagandeep Singh, a city resident, said the sewerage and drainage system of the city needed to be upgraded.

The overflowing of sewage and issue of bloacked sewerage should be addressed on priority, he added.

Jaspal Sharma, another city resident, said stray cattle had turn into a huge problem for the city.

The MCB should keep aside funds and come up with a concrete plan to manage the increasing number of stray cattle, he added.

On and off, the MCB announces plans to construct cattle sheds but stray cattle continue to roam freely in the city, causing road accidents.

Atul Garg said the biggest problem was of waterlogging.

Every year, the MCB announces huge plans to tackle the situation but they remain on paper as a little spell of rain is enough to submerge the city under water, he added.

Another resident Arun Kumar Garg said although the MC had outsourced the work of garbage collection in the city to a private company and the company had been working satisfactorily, the civic body also needed to have a back-up plan for garbage collection and disposal in case the company’s employee went on a strike, which happened many times.

MCB workers are seen burning garbage on the streets but this practice should be stopped immediately, Garg added.