4th year in a row: Mysuru City Corporation to present budget in new fiscal

MYSURU: For the fourth time in a row, Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) budget will be presented after the start of the new financial year. Here is one more example of how the political uncertainties affect the city’s planned growth. Delay in the selection of the new chairman for the various standing committees of Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) has now resulted in further postponement of the budget presentation.
Since 2020, the corporation budget is presented after the start of the new financial year affecting the city’s planned growth. In the year 2019, the budget was presented on February 27. In 2020, it was presented on May 20.
In 2021, it was presented on April 29. In 2022, the annual budget was presented on April 28 due to the confusion over the tenure of then mayor Sunanda Phalanetra.
According to the sources, BJP’s decision not to extend support for JD(S) in the MCC standing committee chairman election has now resulted in the postponement of the budget presentation. BJP state leadership is against the party joining hands with JD(S) in MCC as it may send the wrong signal to the voters in the assembly election. With no head of the standing committee on finance, the budget preparation is stalled.
KV Shridhar, a JD(S) corporator from ward number 3 said, “If the MCC budget is approved before the election notification, it would have helped in planning developmental works”. “The term of this elected council will end soon.
By the time the budget gets approved, our term will end. So, this delay is affecting our plans for the city,” he said. If the budget was presented and approved, MCC could have floated tenders and taken up a few developmental works, he said.
Mayor M Shivakumar said that for emergency works like drainage, garbage clearance, water supply, will have no impact. As the code of conduct is in progress, even if the budget was presented it was of no use, he contended.
Meanwhile, the city residents feel that the MCC should be more responsible. Shridevi Amruthraj, a resident from Hebbal, said: “Mysuru is the second biggest city after Bengaluru. It is sad that the corporation is not able to finalise the budget even before the start of the new financial year”. There is an urgent need to come out with a timeline for budget presentation, she said.