As expected, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) 2014–15 budget has been hailed by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling party in the council, and labelled bogus by the Opposition Congress and Janata Dal (S).
Mayor B.S. Sathyanarayana praised the budget and called it “realistic”. He said that the budget envisaged improving the BBMP’s financial condition by focussing on revenue generation.
While the Opposition leaders slammed the budget, city in-charge Minister Ramalinga Reddy praised the budget and pointed out that prominence had been given to generating revenue. He said that it was good news for citizens as no new taxes have been announced. “It is okay if the taxes are not increased. It is important to bring all properties under the tax net and defaulters are made to clear their pending dues,” he said.
However, Opposition leader in the BBMP council B.N. Manjunath Reddy termed it a “fake budget”. “There is a mismatch between the BBMP’s actual revenue and the anticipated receipts for 2014–15. There is no vision and the budget will not be implemented successfully,” he said and pointed out that the implementation of the previous year’s budget was only 40 per cent.
R. Prakash, Janata Dal (Secular) Floor Leader, said the budget was “disappointing.” He said that with no long-term programmes for the city, the budget offered no solutions to the city’s crumbling infrastructure. “It is evident that no preparations went into drafting the budget. The committee has not consulted experts or citizens,” he said.
