LUDHIANA: In the run up to the selection of the new mayor, Punjab’s largest civic body —
MC Ludhiana — is also ready with its annual budget worth Rs 862 crore for the upcoming financial year. A final budget will be prepared only after a discussion with the new mayor. Officials claimed that major concentration would remain on improvement of the old and defunct water supply lines, due to which people become victims of water-borne diseases every year.
A major source of MC’s income is GST instalments, from which Rs 500 crore is expected to flow in. MC has fixed recovery targets under several heads. Since regularization of illegal colonies and advertisement policy is due, officials are expecting good revenue from these two sources too.
However, this time MC did not make government grants as a part of their annual budget, whereas earlier, they had been including the grants from various sources like
Housing and Urban Development Corporation (Hudco) or Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut) in the annual budget.
In this budget, officials have kept a major quotient for construction and maintenance of city roads, water supply, sewerage, and development of parks. For bringing improvement in water supply and curbing the problem of water contamination, the department is planning to prepare a project under the Amrut scheme, in order to replace rusted water and sewerage pipelines with new ones.
One of the officials said every summer and monsoon, people complain about water contamination. He said even last year, several cases of water-borne diseases were reported in the city’s areas. Apart from this, they were planning to spend money on the purchase of new machinery to improve the functioning of the department, it was added.
MC commissioner
Jaskiran Singh said they had prepared the budget estimates, but before putting it in the MC house, they would discuss it with the new mayor. He said they would try to conduct a house meeting for the budget by March 31, but the decision has to be taken by the mayor.
