BANGALORE: Kachakaranahalli corporator Padmanabha Reddy, who represents Janata Dal (Secular), the main Opposition party in the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) Council, on Tuesday demanded a white paper on the BMP's finances.

Participating in the discussion on the BMP budget for 2006-2007, Mr. Reddy sought details on the amount of tax collected by the civic body, the amount used for administrative purposes, development works, repayment of loans and payment of interest.

Pointing that there is no mention about resource mobilisation in the Rs. 1,870-crore budget, Mr Reddy said: "If we put all tax and fines together, the BMP's maximum annual revenue is over Rs 500 crore. This apart, we can afford to take loans of about Rs. 600 crore at the most. Anything more than this is not realistic."

Pay and park scheme

He suggested that the BMP set up a committee comprising officials and vehicle owners to elicit public opinion on the re-introduction of the "pay and park" system. "The system should be brought back at least for cars," he said.

Terming the budget as a "jumble of figures," Mr. Reddy demanded that the budget be reworked and presented again by the Standing Committee on Taxation and Finance.

Officials criticised

Basavaganudi MLA K. Chandrashekar criticised officials for not consulting the elected representatives in chalking out projects to be executed with assistance from the World Bank and under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

Ridiculing the proposals to construct several flyovers, he said: "Only flyovers will not develop Bangalore. If you want the city to match international standards, you should work towards the overall development."

Kalyana mantapas

Prakashnagar corporator G. Padmavathy said of the 131 kalyana mantapas (marriage halls) in the West zone, only 53 have licences. "It is unfortunate that the officials have been allowing the owners of the remaining 78 halls to continue business unauthorisedly for years," she said.

Similarly, the rents for shops in markets owned by the BMP have not been increased for years.

"The original allottees sub-let the shops and earn 10 times more than what they pay to the BMP. If such discrepancies are set right, we can mobilise more resources," she said.

Former leader of the BJP in the BMP council B.M. Mangala, who termed the budget as a "bundle of lies and one that depended only on loans," sought to know how the BMP will repay the loans.

Pointing out that the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) had prepared a blueprint of the city using geographical information system (GIS), Ms. Mangala suggested that the BMP can use the same data to identify property that have not been included in the tax net.

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