MCC pre-Budget meeting drowned in din

Finance Committee Chairman to present Budget for 2022-23

Mysuru: Chaos prevailed at the pre-Budget meeting convened by the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) this afternoon over the issue of Mayor’s term and the presentation of Budget. Opposition Congress cornered the ruling BJP (Mayor is from BJP) over many issues and even the JD(S) Corporators joined the arguments.

After a heated debate for over an hour, it was later decided that the Finance and Taxation Standing Committee Chairman M.S. Shobha will present the Budget for 2022-2023 as per the Government order. The Budget date was, however, yet to be decided. The meeting was on when we went to the Press.

The meeting was called at 12.30 pm at the MCC and was chaired by Mayor (in-Charge) Sunanda Palanetra. Deputy Mayor (in-Charge) Anwar Baig and MCC Commissioner G. Lakshmikantha Reddy were present. The meeting was called to end the stalemate over the presentation of the Budget.

As the official tenure of the Mayor ended on Feb. 24, there was confusion whether Sunanda Palanetra had the power to present the Budget. Usually, the Finance and Taxation Standing Committee Chairman (Corporator Shobha) presents the Budget and in this case, as the Mayor’s term had ended, there was confusion as to who will present the Budget — whether it is Finance and Taxation Standing Committee Chairman or the MCC Commissioner.

The issue was further complicated due to a delay in the announcement of the reservations for the Mayoral polls, delaying the elections. While the ruling BJP argued that it could present the Budget, the opposition JD(S) argued that the Finance and Taxation Standing Committee must be reconstituted after the Mayoral polls.

Following the confusion, the MCC Commissioner wrote to the Government seeking permission for Budget presentation. The Municipal Administration Department granted permission for the same and this was announced by the Commissioner amidst the heated debate after which it was decided that M.S. Shobha will present the Budget as the Chairman of the Finance and Taxation Standing Committee.

As soon as the meeting began, former Mayors and current Corporators Ayub Khan and Arif Hussain led the team that demanded the MCC Commissioner not to allow the Budget presentation until the Mayor and Heads of all the Standing Committees are newly elected.

This was opposed by Corporator M.U. Subbaiah from the BJP who argued that the Budget could be presented. Other Corporators who participated in the debate are Ashwini Ananthu, Pushpalatha Jagannath and Prema Shankaregowda.

While the ruling party stuck to its position, the Congress and JD(S) members alleged that the BJP was not inviting them for any event. “All the events are becoming BJP programmes and none of the Congress and JD(S) Corporators are being invited to any events,” they alleged, only to be countered by the BJP.

Seeing the debate was going off-track, the Commissioner announced that the order from the Municipal Administration Department clearly stated that the Finance and Taxation Standing Committee Chairman has the authority to present the Budget.