The city Corporation’s budget for the 2019-20 financial year will be presented in the council on February 11. With the local body’s plan to introduce participatory budgeting this year, the next week will be spent in collecting opinions from the public through various forums.
Speaking at a press conference here on Saturday, Deputy Mayor Rakhi Ravikumar, who will be presenting her fourth budget, said that the gains made through people’s participation in the planning for the Smart City project inspired the local body to take the same route for the budget too.
“People can now put forward their suggestions on how much funds should be used for which sector. We have a mobile application through which the public can send us their demands. In addition, a ‘budget vandi’ (budget vehicle) will be going around all the wards over the next five days to collect the feedback on the previous year’s performance and suggestions for the next year’s budget. Since we have only a few days to prepare this year’s budget owing to the elections, we expect to implement participatory budgeting in an improved manner next year,” she said.
The suggestions can be sent to the ‘Smart Trivandrum’ mobile application or to tvmmayor@gmail.com or the suggestion boxes placed at all the offices of the city Corporation.
State Budget hailed
Mayor V.K. Prasanth hailed the projects announced for the capital city in the State Budget this year.
“The decision to reinstate 10% entertainment tax will help us generate more revenues under the own fund. Conversion of all KSRTC buses in the city to electric mode will reduce the pollution levels in the city,” he said.