Mayor Jagat Bahadur Singh made several bold claims about the city’s development during the budget meeting organised at Pt Bhawani Prasad Tiwari auditorium of Jabalpur Municipal Corporation, on Monday. However, he also had to face sharp allegations of the Opposition members. Allegations by Congress corporators and counter attacks from ruling Bharatiya Janata Party members heated up the House. After day-long debate the meeting is adjourned till 11 am, on Tuesday. It may be mentioned that on March 28, Mayor Jagat Bahadur Singh presented Rs 1,800 crore budget for the 2025–26 financial year in the Municipal Corporation House.

 

The budget includes a number of significant development oriented proposals including reconstruction of 50 school buildings, an international standard swimming pool, ten new cremation grounds and renovation of ten city ponds, modern cowshed and 500 dairy outlets, biogas plant, 100 air conditioned electric buses, new road from Shankaracharya Chowk to Gaurighat on railway land, Ramayana themed park, working women’s hostel, sports ground near Ranital pond, an Oxygen Zone, urban forest, public garden, water sports facilities and a solar power plant etc. On Monday, at the start of meeting, the Mayor announced that four new fire stations would soon be established across the city. He said Sanskardhani is expanding rapidly and our goal is to have fire brigade teams reach any part of the city within five minutes of an emergency. He said the ruling party has made special budget provisions for the task. Mayor Singh also declared that following Indore’s example, Jabalpur would become a ‘beggar-free city’.

 

He promised that children forced into begging would be provided with educational resources and literate adults who still beg would be linked to JMC’s employment programmes. The Mayor said the Municipal Corporation has ample funds for all proposed development works. “Our priority now is to strengthen infrastructure quickly, overhaul sanitation and meet smart city standards,” he added. Singh said it is a matter of proud and respectful and a big achievement that the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board has Jabalpur as the first city in the State where the water of Maa Narmada has been declared A-class i.e. potable. However, tempers flared when Leader of Opposition Amrish Mishra accused the Mayor of making ‘empty promises’ on development projects.

 

He launched a scathing attack on several issues, alleging that the Mayor’s claims lacked substance. Mayor Singh responded to each point in turn, urging the opposition to stick to the facts. Opposition Corporators Ayodhya Tiwari, Satyendra Choubey, Shagufta Usmani and Aditi Atul Bajpayee were among those spoke at length during the meeting. Later, Congress Corporator Santosh Panda while raising the issue related to construction of BJP’s divisional office, he said although the BJP was officially allotted only 10,000 sq ft, it had occupied 40,000 sq ft land. BJP Corporators strongly refuted the charge, calling it baseless and the Mayor clarified that the office’s construction process was entirely legal and in accordance with regulations.