Mohali budget meet today to be stormy

Gaurav Kanthwal

Mohali, February 29

A day ahead of the the Mohali MC budget meeting, councillors Manjit Singh Sethi, Sukhdev Singh Patwari and Sarabjit Singh Samana alleged that the the budget income for 2023-24 has ben lowered from Rs 173 crore to Rs 140 crore and inflated the 2024-25 budget by 10 per cent to cover-up their inefficiency. The income budget for 2024-25 is less by Rs 5 crore than the income budget for 2023-24, they said.

The issue is likely to come up during the Budget Meeting on March 1. The target of total income of Rs 17349.55 lakh was approved by the MC in the budget of 2023-2024, and the actual income till December 2023 was Rs 9707.52 lakh, which is expected to be Rs 13,983 lakh by March 2024.

Councillors of the opposition party said the terms and conditions for displaying advertisements on 186 MC sites are such that no one is willing to bid in the tender, because of which the civic body has to incur losses. Councillor Sethi said, “Almost all the sites are being arbitrarily allotted for personal gains.”

Against the expected income of Rs 31 crore, the MC has been able to collect Rs 4.22 crore this year till now. This amount is expected to touch Rs 6.12 crore by the end of March.

According to the 2024–25 budget estimate, the income from the advertisement fee is expected to double next year at around Rs 12 crore without increasing the rates.

Addressing mediapersons, Councillor Patwari said, “It has been over three months, but the machines which are worth Rs 10 crore for mechanical sweeping have not been procured by the MC so far. There are mounds of garbage in various places across the city, and the sewage lines are still chocked with no permanent solution in sight. The Mayor, Amarjit Singh Sidhu, and the Deputy Mayor, Kuljit Singh Bedi, have been blaming the officials of the Municipal Corporation instead of taking responsibility for the sorry state of affairs in the city.”

Work order for mechanical sweeping

On February 27, the MC issued a work order for mechanical sweeping of the city to Global Waste Management Cell Private Limited for five years. Rs 41.53 crore had been allotted for the project, and it is estimated to cost Rs 40.81 crore. Under the project, the machines would cover 217 km for 26 days every month. The project has been lingering for two years. Mohali Deputy Mayor Kuljit Singh Bedi said the firm would issue supply orders for the imported machines within 15 days and would begin operations in two to three months.