Rough budget: Chandigarh Municipal Corporation keeps Rs 50 lakh for study tours

BJP councillor Satinder Singh had pointed out that the civic body was wasting money on the study tours. He had alleged that no report was ever submitted of any visit and the tours were only leisure trips for the councillors.

After a study tour in 2014, a controversy was courted when councillors took their family members along on the visit and later, Rs 9,000 each was deducted from their bank accounts.

The data of all the study tours, taken from 1996, would now be placed before the House on January 22 meeting.

Meanwhile in the rough draft, total expenditure has been marked as Rs 84,373.00 lakh. Of the total budget, the plan budget has been kept as Rs 34,395 lakh, while Rs 49,978 lakh has been kept as non-plan budget.

Under the Total Grant in Aid, the plan category has Rs 31,625 lakh, while Rs 34,331 are in the non- plan category.

To discuss about various heads in the budget, the commissioner of the municipal corporation has called all the heads of various departments for a meeting on Tuesday.

Mayor Arun Sood said it would be a realistic budget and the rough draft of the budget would be circulated to all the councillors for their suggestions.

“It is a rough draft. I assure all of you that it is going to be a realistic budget. In the meantime, when we get suggestions from the councillors and residents, would be then placed in the House,” said Sood.

Suggestions from residents would be sought online. This time the budget is scheduled to be released in the first week of February.