Budget gets thumbs up from corporators

A majority of the corporators appreciated the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) budget for the financial year 2018-19, presented by Tax, Finance and Appeals standing committee president K P Ashwini, at the MCC, here, on Tuesday.

The corporators said that Mayor Bhagyavathi should take measures for the implementation of the programmes proposed in the budget, effectively.

M V Ramprasad said that the budget is realistic and the proposal for toilet and bathroom facilities for civic workers, swimming pools, and stadium are good initiatives. He said, "As the general elections are nearing, the MCC has little time and the authorities should introduce the programmes as soon as possible."

H N Srikantaiah pointed put that a few significant programmes that were proposed in the previous budgets have been dropped this time.

"The mayor should take measures to provide scholarships to private school students too. MCC offers a scholarship to students with taxpayers' money and the parents of private school students too pay tax. Thus, scholarship should be extended to private institutions," he said.

Committee

Corporator B V Manjunath suggested the formation of a Budget Implementation Committee for effective implementation of the programmes. The present council has less time and we should speed up the works. A committee would be helpful to execute the works, he opined.

However, K C Showkath Pasha opined that the budget is not full-fledged. He expressed his displeasure over providing Rs 10 crore for the City Traffic Police for 'Effective Traffic Management System'. The MCC has been providing funds for Social Forestry since four years, but, nothing much has progressed, he said.

Pasha said, "The MCC has not paid the bills for the underground drainage works since 2012. The MCC has to pay Rs 24 crore to the contractors. The pending bills should be cleared soon."