Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Opposition slams Corpn. budget

Special Correspondent

COIMBATORE: The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)-led Opposition in the Coimbatore Corporation Council slammed the civic body's budget on Tuesday, terming it a bunch of photocopies of the previous budget. It also staged a walkout over the halting of the process of providing water connections in unapproved layouts.

During the debate on the budget, the parties found no reason to appreciate the schemes under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and did not see any vision statement in the budget for the city. The budget had only the mission to show as schemes for development and nothing else, the Deputy Mayor, K. Raghupathy (Congress), said.

The Opposition, however, assailed the Mayor, T. Malaravan, and his party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, for not including in the budget a few words of gratitude to the Centre for including the city under the mission for substantial grants.

The Leader of the Opposition, K.P. Jagannathan, said the Democratic Progressive Alliance took exception to the Corporation not being thankful to the Centre for the mission.

"Improvements are being done along Race Course Road but what about the unapproved layouts," Mr. Jagannathan said. He wanted to know whether the Corporation had forwarded to the Government an all-party resolution passed here to provide water connections in these layouts. The Communist Party of India councillor, R. Devaraj, said the implementation period of seven more years for schemes brought under the JNNURM only meant that the budget placed a burden on the Mayors for the next two tenures (five years each) of the Council.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) councillor, C. Padmanabhan, said the Corporation should also appeal to the Government for higher allocation of funds. The Congress member, `Colony' R. Venkatachalam, said the budget did not assure the people of any solution to their day-to-day problems. They needed good roads and streetlights but nothing had been done so far. M. Krishnaswamy of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam observed that there was no major announcement in the budget despite this being an election year.

The Opposition parties said more than 800 applications for water connections in unapproved layouts had been set aside by the Corporation on the grounds that they had to pay at least 50 per cent of the development charges. Protesting against this, the members staged a walkout even as the budget was passed.

Mayor refutes charges

Participating in the budget debate, the Mayor responded to the charges levelled by the Opposition and said that the Corporation Council led by him was providing the best of amenities to the residents with the same tax revenue, which the civic body had five years ago. During the last five years, not a single new tax was imposed or the tax slabs were hiked. With the same tax revenue and growing demand, the Corporation had managed to provide civic amenities to the residents, he pointed out.

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