MC passes Budget sans question hour

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 25

Within five minutes, the General House of the Municipal Corporation (MC) passed its Rs451-crore Budget for the financial year 2019-20 on Monday.

While presenting the Budget, Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu asked councillors to speak only if they had something to say on the Budget. As he asked members not to raise any political issue as the code of conduct for Lok Sabha elections was in force, the Budget was passed with a voice vote as none of the members opted to raise any issue.

However, after the House was adjourned, Senior Deputy Mayor Raman Bakshi raised before the media the issue of missing files of the corporation. Citing a particular case of a female medical officer with the MC, Bakshi claimed that even as her promotion was due for the last around 15 years, the file pertaining to the same had gone missing.

Bakshi had earlier raised the issue of missing files pertaining to MC properties given on lease. “Around 180 files of the leased properties have gone missing and nothing has been done so far. These files had gone missing in the previous 10 years of the SAD-BJP rule,” he said.

According to Bakshi, though he could not raise the issue in the House because of the election code of conduct, he asked for a thorough probe regarding the missing files. “These two cases are just the tip of the iceberg. Many important documents can be missing. This needs an inquiry,” he said.

While the Budget was passed instantly, many of the councillors, including those from the ruling party, were left disappointed over scrapping of the question hour. “The question hour is a important part of the Budget session. I don’t know how it could have been against the code of conduct as councillors could have raised issues of general public interest,” said a councillor from the ruling party.