Mayor holds all-party meet to discuss Budget agenda

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, March 23

As the estimated Budget for the upcoming financial year 2023-24 is set to be presented before the Municipal Corporation (MC) House on Friday, Mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu held an all-party meeting on Thursday evening.

The Budget agenda will be presented during the General House meeting of the MC, which will be held at the MC’s Zone A office on Friday afternoon.

Councillors and leaders from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), BJP, Lok Insaaf Party and Congress participated in the all-party meeting, which was also attended by MC Commissioner Shena Aggarwal, during which they discussed the Budget agenda.

The civic body has planned to present an estimated Budget of Rs 1,043.46 crore for the upcoming financial year 2023-24. Sources suggest that the Budget income target might be slightly increased during the meeting on Friday.

During the all-party meeting today, a BJP leader raised the demand to generate more income from advertisements. He stated that about 50 per cent of the sites were earlier surrendered by the contractor concerned but these were not being auctioned. He demanded that conditions be made easier to conduct an auction of vacant advertisement sites in the city. The matter related to the low collection of cow cess and the low revenue from no objection certificates was also raised.

A senior councillor of the SAD, Harbhajan Singh Dang, said they discussed the Budget agenda and gave suggestions to increase the Budget for 2023-24. He also raised the issue of stalled development projects under the councillor quota in various wards of the city.

“We will be calling for a zero hour during the House meeting on Friday. Development projects that were approved for the councillors’ wards are not being carried out due to political pressure after AAP came into power in the state. Despite the issuance of work orders, the projects had not been commenced so far,” he said.

Congress and BJP councillors had earlier raised the issue of the approved development projects not being carried out in their respective wards. Recently, Congress councillors staged a protest against the state government and MC officials in this regard.

It is learnt that the MC is expecting to get an income of Rs 610 crore from GST share, Rs 115 crore from property tax, Rs 90 crore as municipal tax on electricity and Rs12.10 crore from advertisements during the coming financial year.

Rs 1,043.46-cr estimated Budget

The Municipal Corporation has planned to present an estimated Budget of Rs 1,043.46 crore for the upcoming financial year 2023-24. Sources suggest that the Budget income target might be slightly increased during the meeting on Friday.