BANGALORE: Upset over the State Government having cut all special grants earmarked in Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) budget for 2006-2007, the ruling Congress in BMP is busy working out "damage-control" strategies.

The State Government on Tuesday approved the BMP budget with several modifications. It has slashed the Mayor's discretionary quota by Rs. 15 crore and taken away the Deputy Mayor's quota of Rs. 5 crore.

That apart, the budgetary allocation of special grants to MLAs, party leaders, members of the Standing Committee on Taxation and Finance and women corporators have been done away with.

Severe blow

This was a severe blow to the Congress, which prepared the budget keeping in mind the forthcoming BMP elections, sources said.

The Mayor, who is authorised to use her discretionary fund to sanction emergency works and grant medical relief to the poor, has limited funds now. For the record, the former Mayor R. Narayanaswamy had a discretionary quota of Rs. 15 crore.

Congress corporators, who discussed the issue on Wednesday, said the move was an "insult to democracy".

Mayor Mumtaz Begum and the ruling party leader H. Ravindra would lead a delegation of Congress corporators to Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Mallikarjuna Kharge on Thursday to consult him on the matter.

"We will decide on the future course of action only after consulting our leaders.

"We have convened a meeting of former Mayors and former corporators on Thursday to seek their opinion," Mr. Ravindra said.

"The Janata Dal (Secular) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine have done this with vengeance just because the Congress is at the helm of affairs at the BMP.

We will protest the Government's `step motherly' attitude at the BMP subject meeting on June 12," he said.

Bangalore City District Congress Committee president R. Ramalinga Reddy termed the Government's decision as "unfair".

"The council's term will end in November and the cut in grants for development work will naturally affect corporators and MLAs from all parties," he said. The opposition Janata Dal (Secular) (JD-S) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members in the BMP have welcomed the Government's decision.

A jumble of figures

"This shows that the Rs. 1,870-crore budget presented on March 24 in the BMP Council is just a jumble of figures prepared only in view of the elections. If a realistic budget has been presented, the Government would not have made any changes. We congratulate the Government for this," the BJP leader A.H. Basvaraju said.

The Mayor should own responsibility for this and step down from office, he said.

Spill over works

B.R. Nanjundappa (JD-S) said at least now the BMP can complete spill over works that have accumulated over the years. "This is an election year and we need to complete pending projects. Our party welcomes the move," he added.

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