The Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) has just shared its Budget proposals. Not too many in the Councillor fraternity are happy, and neither are some sections of Gurgaon residents. The common perception seems to be that the priorities may be misplaced. The ‘lal dora’ area/limit in villages could be a thorny issue. It is the (municipal) limit of the village, which was defined decades ago in revenue records. Today many (if not the majority) in Gurgaon’s villages live beyond this boundary. For some time now, some of the Councillors have been petitioning for an expansion of the demarcated service area of MCG. According to the Councillor of Ward 34, “Earlier the population in our village was just 4,000. Now it is over 15,000, with more than 12,000 living outside the ‘lal dora’ boundary. It is unfortunate that the State (through the MCG) refuses to serve those who have voted them to power.” The Budget expenditure proposals for the period 2015-16 seem to indicate that the municipal authorities may not be willing to fund developmental activities beyond the ‘lal dora’. Further, there seems to have been little discussion, let alone prior scrutiny, of the Budget proposals with most of the Councillors. A copy of the Budget was given to each of the Councillors, including the Mayor team, earlier this week, but most have not even read it yet. Vimal Yadav, the Mayor of Gurgaon, tells FG that MCG needs to generate roughly Rs 1,500 crores to fund its programmes. He states that the Budget outlay for the period 2015-16 is almost double that of last year. He mentions that there were some key projects that required serious attention this year. “We have to work on three underpasses, which will require substantial capital outlay,” he says. He also believes that the development of basic infrastructure would be the first priority and he also assures that the points highlighted by the Gurgaon Joint Commissioner, Police, Bharti Arora, would be actioned. He also admitted that the Chief Accounts Officer of MCG did meet him a few days ago. He is effusive about the importance of Gurgaon and declares that he would like to make Gurgaon the face of Haryana, as it has huge potential. However, in the same breath he laments the apathy of national agencies towards Gurgaon, which is affecting its development. The Mayor’s deputies, Yashpal Batra and Parminder Kataria, appeared dismayed at MCG’s proposals, which they believe do not reflect sufficient allocation of funds for city-centric services.
According to several observers, the Budget proposals lack a sense of priority. While more funds have got allocated for things like books and periodicals, professional consultancy, establishment and office maintenance, the fund allocation for key civic infrastructure, such as water, sewerage and sanitation, has in fact been reduced. Thankfully there are some positives as well. MCG proposes to set aside a sum of nearly Rs 100 crores for ‘purchases’, of vehicles, and for the setting up of a solid waste management plant. The repair and maintenance of roads, and sewer and water pipelines, has been allocated Rs 146 crores. Other areas of expenditure pertain to the maintenance of ‘other assets’, including engineering, at Rs 408 crores. MCG hopes to fund its increased expenditure largely through stamp duty collection at Rs 712 crores, property tax at Rs 200 crores, income from investments at Rs 65 crores, advertisement tax Rs 48 crores, excise duty share of Rs 35 crores, development charges at Rs 127 crores and the CLU/TP scheme at Rs 163 crores. The Budget has remained silent on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet subject, the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.’ There is no separate allocation for this, though the investment on the solid waste plant could be an indirect allocation, believe observers. The Budget proposals probably failed to send the right signal to the people, by placing emphasis on office and establishment expenditure. This is being seen as the MCG officials’ keenness to operate from plush offices, rather than focusing on the plights of the common man. On the whole, MCG has estimated revenue of Rs 1,416 crores, while the expenditure budget is Rs 1,313 crores, leaving a small surplus of about Rs 100 crores.
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