But Opposition parties question Rs4,167-cr 'inflated' budget's realisation.
Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) general body unanimously passed the Rs4,167-crore municipal budget despite the opposition parties terming it ‘inflated’. The opposition questioned the civic body’s ability to execute it against the background of uncertainty of local body tax (LBT) collection in the next financial year.
Even as the civic authority and PMC standing committee have calculated its revenue based on octroi, PMC will be actually collecting it in the form of LBT. Opposition parties asked the standing committee chairman Baburao Chandere that when there is uncertainty on how much revenue will be collected by the civic body, why the budget was inflated by almost over Rs500 crore.
Congress along with the Opposition parties criticised Chandere for making excess budgetary provision for Baner-Balewadi and Kothrud area which fall in the Kothrud constituency. Chandere is keen to represent this constituency at the upcoming state assembly polls next year.
Opposition leader Vasant More said that there is no rationale behind making monetary provision in wards represented by the opposition corporators.
“It seems that the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) corporators were given less monetary provision as they opposed the tax hike,” he said.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) group leader Ashok Yenpure termed the budget ‘bogus and difficult for implementation’. “An all-party delegation from Pune should meet chief minister and prime minister for seeking extra fund, excluding JNNURM, for city’s development,” he said.
Shiv Sena group leader Ashok Harnawal said, “This is the maiden year of LBT, so if the civic authority failed to collected the targeted revenue then the development projects will be hit badly. In 2002, the budget was to the tune of Rs400 crore and in 2013 the budget is of Rs4,167 crore, but no major change has taken place in development of water supply, drainage and roads.”
NCP ally Congress also criticised the budget allocation for Kothrud.
Deputy mayor Deepak Mankar, who has unsuccessfully contested the last assembly polls, asked Chandere to create place in the minds of Kothrud residents instead of allotting extra funds to the same area. Congress group leader Arvind Shinde preferred to target municipal commissioner and pointed out discrepancies in the budget draft.
Replying to the budget discussion, Chandere, who was attending the GB meet for the last time as the standing committee chairman said, “I tried to give justice to the overall development of the city.”
After the end of discussion, the budget was unanimously approved.
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