Opp assails Indore budget

The debate over annual budget presented by Indore Mayor Malini Gaud on Thursday turned out to be stormy with both the ruling party and opposition giving contradictory statements on provisions made in the budget. While the Opposition described it as a jugglery of statistics, the ruling party described the budget as development-oriented and people friendly.

Participating in the debate proceedings, the leader of Opposition in Indore Municipal Corporation, Fauzia Sheikh Alim said that looking at provisions made in the budget, it appears that the whole budget has been prepared keeping in mind Assembly segment No. 4. The budget showed that the Mayor had yet not come out of her Assembly constituency.

However, she was contradicted by IMC public works department in-charge Shankar Yadav through statistics. Congress corporators created ruckus and raised slogans while Yadav was giving his budget speech.Indore Mayor Malini Gaud on Thursday had presented a deficit budget of Rs 2,131 crores for 2015-16, showing a deficit of Rs 72 crores. The budget more or less was people oriented as no new taxes were imposed by the IMC in the budget, thereby giving a reprieve to the city people.

The salient features of the budget include Rs 250 crores allocation for development of main and link roads of the city, Rs 170 crores for sewarage projects, ASTP plant etc, while a sum of Rs 25 crore has been earmarked for Smart City Mission so as to enable Indore get included in top 20 smart cities of the country. Besides, the budget has also made provisions for affordable housing for urban poor, link and feeder roads, environment conservation etc.