Nagpur: A joint delegation of Nagpur Municipal Corporation Employees Union, Nagpur MC Evajdar Sangathana and Nagpur MC Theka Kamdar Sangathana met the NMC commissioner Shravan Hardikar on July 23 and handed him a memorandum urging him not to accept the NMC budget 2015-16. The delegation comprised heads of all the three unions, namely, Jammu Anand, Sheshrao Gotmare and Ramesh Gawai.
The delegates told the NMC commissioner in precision that the NMC budget had failed to take the ongoing financial crisis of NMC into consideration, through which it is currently passing. When the budget was tabled, it was expected that some remedial measures to the financial crisis would be suggested in the budget, but nothing of the sort was made. Thus, the ruling party has belied the expectations of all in the budget, they pointed out. It may be recalled that all the three unions had registered their concern over the falling revenue of NMC due to local body tax during past two years.
The delegation underlined that the current budget would further deepen the financial crisis rather than recovering from it. It highlighted the main reasons for not accepting it, as follows:
1) the current budget is not serious to bail out NMC from financial crisis,
2) the statistical figures in the budget are not realistic,
2-a) the current budget provides estimated income of Rs 1965.12 crore which includes expected Rs 450 crore revenue from LBT while the LBT would be abolished from August 1, 2015.
According to the delegation, about Rs 140 to Rs 150 crore should have been estimated from local body tax, keeping the months of April, May, June and July in view, and with this total revenue of Rs 1695.12 crore could have been expected. The delegation criticized the suggestion of Ruling party leader Dayashankar Tiwari in the budget that the NMC would receive Rs 60 crore per month from state government, and termed it quite ridiculous. If Tiwari’s suggestion is taken into consideration, the NMC would receive Rs 720 crore from the state government, which means that the budget would shoot to Rs 2235.12 crore against the tabled budget of Rs 1695.12 crore.
3) The current budget highlights revenue generation of Rs 150 crore through private company Orange City Water Limited, and it is nothing but to protect the OCWL, for no details of income and expenditure of OCWL were shown. The citizens have all rights to know the facts, and so the NMC commissioner must furnish clear-cut explanation on this count, the delegation demanded, adding that the budget should be transparent and easy to understand, not complex, in the interest of citizens/ common man. The delegation also urged the commissioner for reflection of NMC employees’ salary and pension, etc, in the budget.
