Mayor A.P. R. Antony Grace presented a Rs. 4.27-crore deficit budget for Tuticorin Corporation for the 2015-16 fiscal here on Wednesday.
While the Corporation’s revenue in the form of grant, taxes etc., will stand at Rs. 51.88 crore, its expenditure for maintenance of roads and buildings, salaries, public sanitation etc., will be Rs. 56.16 crore and hence the deficit. In the budget proposals, Ms. Grace announced that solar power panels would be fitted atop buildings of the Corporation’s office and school on an outlay of Rs. 1 crore. Another Rs. 1 crore would be spent for improving the infrastructure of the Corporation school buildings. The park at State Bank Colony would be renovated at a cost of Rs. One crore.
A sum of Rs. 3 crore had been allotted for setting up a biogas plant under solid waste management programme. A 2-km stretch of Buckle Canal link road will be renovated at a cost of Rs. 3 crore, the Mayor said.
When the meeting started, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) councillors, led by Kotturaja, shouted against tabling the budget in the council’s extraordinary meeting and urged the Mayor to cancel all the proposals which were adjourned in the previous meeting. They called for presenting the budget in the next ordinary meeting of the council.
When the Mayor refused to accept their demand, the DMK members raised slogans against her. One of them, Suresh Kumar, tore the meeting agenda even as the Mayor announced that all the 37 proposals had been passed.
Agitated over this, the DMK members staged a walkout from the meeting and normality returned to the council hall to enable the Mayor to present the Budget. Ms. Grace informed that foundation stone for the integrated bus stand would be laid in April.
She announced that Mr. Sureshkumar, who tore the agenda, would be suspended for two council meetings.
