AMC didn't use Rs 13K cr funds: Badruddin Shaikh

Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has not used Rs 13,131 crore of the budgetary allocations proposed in the past 11 years, according to former Leader of Opposition Badruddin Shaikh. On Wednesday, he accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of making "false promises" during budget announcements.

"The BJP-run Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has made false promises of making the city number 1," said Shaikh. "There is no vision in their statements or announcements. Their budgets are also like their election manifesto. Sadly, in the past 11 years, the civic body has not spent Rs 13,131 crore of the budgets announced. They have never tried to fulfill their budget promises."

Speaking about the unused budgetary allocations, Shaikh told the media that in 2017-18, the civic body had announced a budget of Rs 6,501 crore, out of which they spent only Rs 1,151 crore.

In the past 11 years, AMC has promised budget allocations totaling up to Rs 52,305.04 crore, according to the senior Congress leader.

"On the contrary, the civic body is now in debt. When the Congress was in power, we never hiked taxes, instead we reported a surplus of Rs 211 crore. Whereas, under the BJP, AMC has introduced tax hikes three times, and still the civic body is in debt," alleged Shaikh.

Standing Committee Chairman Pravin Patel said that the civic body had undertaken several development projects in the past ten years. According to him, Ahmedabad has received many awards and international recognition because of those projects.