Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun, accompanied by senior councillors from Congress, Janata Dal (S) and the opposition BJP, is planning to meet Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Monday to urge him to approve the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) budget for 2019-20.
However, on Monday, the Chief Minister will be undertaking an aerial survey of flooded areas in north Karnataka. He will be returning to Bengaluru at night and is scheduled to leave for Delhi immediately after.
On Saturday, Mr. Yediyurappa, in a letter to the Urban Development Department (UDD), put on hold the BBMP budget. The CM has stated that the budget approved by the previous government in June could be deemed “illegal” , as it did not have the Cabinet's approval.
Ms. Mallikarjun said, “We will appeal to the Chief Minister to re-examine the budget, if necessary, and accord approval as soon as possible in the interest of the city.”
Senior civic officials are worried that with the budget being put on hold, day-to-day maintenance work and general administration will be badly affeected. Many expressed concerns that with this decision, approval for garbage tenders, which are nearing finalisation, may be put off. Apart from garbage tenders, the BBMP had also sought government approval to float a short-term tender to begin dumping in Mittaganhalli landfill.
However, BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad said that only civic works which require job codes will be affected. “Essential services, like solid waste management, and day-to-day administration will not be affected,” he said.
The government's move has come as a surprise to many civic experts as well.
Srikanth Viswanathan from Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy said no local self-government should be without a budget even for a day. “Even this year, the budget was approved by the previous government very late. However, the government re-examining the budget might be a good thing if the intent is to bring in financial discipline in the civic body and replace it with a realistic budget,” he said.
The civic body has always received flak for presenting unrealistic budgets. The 2019-20 budget with an outlay of ₹12,957.79 crore was approved by the BBMP Council on March 23.
Days later, BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad wrote to the UDD pointing out that the civic body would not be able to implement the budget, which was 173.61% more than the accounts of 2017-18 and 148.09% more than the accounts of 2018-19. However, the previous government approved the budget with an outlay of ₹11,648.9 crore.
Mr. Prasad had earlier also written to the government to bring the civic body under the ambit of the Karnataka Local Fund Authorities and Fiscal Responsibilities Act, 2003. This, he reiterated, would provide legal backing to the demand to have a realistic budget, based on revenue generation.
