‘BBMP failed to implement last year’s budget schemes’

Opposition leader Padmanabha Reddy has accused the BBMP administration of failing to implement last year’s budget and rehashing many of the same programmes this year.

Speaking at the council meeting on Wednesday, Reddy said: “Despite having a Rs 20,000-crore burden, the civic body has tabled a Rs 10,600-crore budget, which is a bogus budget. The programmes announced last year aren’t implemented and were repeated (this year) with new names.”

Criticising the budget, Reddy brandished a letter, purportedly written by the Urban Development Department (UDD) to BBMP commissioner N Manjunath Prasad. “On February 18, the day the BBMP tabled the budget for the year 2019-20, the UDD writes a letter to the commissioner, warning that the Palike should keep the limited resources in mind while preparing the budget.“Despite the state government’s warning, the ruling coalition tabled a budget with heavy receipts.”

The ruling party leader in the BBMP, Abdul Wajid, rejected the Opposition charges, saying: “This budget is tabled with a clear vision of the development of the city.”