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Journalism of Courage
VADODARA, Feb 18: Having suggested some changes in the Standing Committee8217;s proposals on fire tax, lifetime vehicle tax and octroi rates included in the civic budget for the year 1999-2000, the General Board of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation VMC on Thursday gave its approval to the same. The Board also approved the revised budget for the year 1998-1999.
The Board has increased by Rs 50 lakhs the revised budgetary provision for shifting electricity poles for undertaking the model road project. While the rental and interest earnings from leased VMC properties remains the same, the Board has reduced the allocation for maintenance from Rs 5,169 lakhs to Rs 3,611.40 lakhs. A minor change has been made in the budget for running municipal schools with the Board deciding an allocation of Rs 3,570 lakhs.
Meanwhile, for the second consecutive day, Opposition members at the General Board continued to criticise the civic budget for the year 1999-2000 terming it 8220;overly-ambitious8221; and 8220;unrealistic8221;.
Lok Shahi leader and councillor Chandrakant Srivastava the new budget made a generous use of Section 67 C which entitled the municipal commissioner to easily tap monetary resources. According to Srivastava, despite 80 per cent of the grants extended by the Vadodara Municipal Corporation to the municipal school board, most children studying at these schools remained illiterate.
He questioned the Vadodara Municipal Corporation 8216;s rationale behind spending Rs 5 to 10 lakhs in the construction of new schools while emptying as many as nine of those which the civic body had rented despite the fact that its coffers were empty.
Congress councillor Chinnam Gandhi, meanwhile, charged the municipal commissioner with using artifice to approve two tenders for the model roads though the tenders quoted a 1.5 per cent higher price than the estimated cost. He threatened to take both the Commissioner and the Standing Committee Chairman to court.
