JMC’s budget of Rs 1,400 cr passed unanimously

Staff Reporter

After prolonged debate the proposed budget of Rs 1,400 crore of Jabalpur Municipal Corporation (JMC) for the year 2023-24 was, on Monday passed unanimously. The Opposition members along with ruling party members gave various suggestions during the debate continued for 8 days. At the end, the Mayor assured house members for including their significant suggestions in the budget and extended gratitude for their support.

He fixed the fund for development works under Corporators’ head, for new wards to Rs 1.05 crores and for old wards to Rs 90 lakhs. Likewise, the Mayor also announced to provide android mobile phones to all Corporators. Besides, days were also fixed for allotment of Manas Bhawan Auditorium under Mayor and Chairperson’s recommendation. Earlier, the budget meeting witnessed uproar on various issues including water crises. On one hand where the opposition members cornered the ruling party members on the issue, while on the other the ruling party members blamed concerned senior officials for water crises. They said the negligence of senior officials is proving dear to residents of a number of wards of the city.

However, for the last few meeting the Mayor avoided to accept openly the issue of water crisis, but today his party MLA Vinay Saxena, who attended the meeting, said water crisis is prevalent in the city and he proposed to build a tank in his assembly to tackle the issue. He also offered to contribute 40 percent of the construction cost, with the rest to be arranged by the Municipal Corporation. The proposal was accepted by members of both parties and the Mayor.

The budget meeting, on Monday held hot debate on several contentious issues. The most pressing concern was the water crisis, which was exposed by Congress MLA Vinay Saxena and MIC member Manish Patel. Saxena proposed the construction of a small tank in his assembly ward, promising to contribute 40 percent of the construction cost.

During the meeting, there was also heated debate over the size of the Chief Minister’s photograph, which was smaller than the Mayor’s photo at the venue of the Kanya Vivah Yojana.

BJP Corporators accused the Municipal Corporation officials of insulting the CM. Chairman Rinku Vij instructed the Municipal Commissioner to begin development works for which Bhumi Pujan was performed during the Mukhyamantri Vikas Yatra and submit a report as soon as possible. At the end, Mayor, Jagat Bahadur Singh in his concluding budget speech said the proposed budget was real and balanced one. It was prepared and presented while considering the economic condition of the JMC. He said no tax revision was made in the budget. He said the ruling party is vowed to execute and complete all proposed proposals and would leave no stone unturned to make Jabalpur a metropolitan.