The record figures of Plan expenditure in the city Corporation in the 2021-22 financial year led to a heated debate in a council meeting held on Saturday, with the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) accusing the ruling front of showing inflated figures by making advanced deposits for various department-related works. However, in her reply, Mayor Arya Rajendran hit back by presenting figures of the spendings under various heads and said that the Opposition should desist from discounting the hard work put in by the Corporation employees.
The civic body had recorded Plan fund expenditure of 93.81% in the previous financial year, spending ₹203.5 crore of the allocated ₹216 crore. BJP councillor K. Anilkumar, who opened the debate, raised a question as to how many of the 117 projects planned last year had been completed. He also said that the Corporation has made deposits in the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), Kerala Water Authority (KWA), Sewerage, Pradhan Manthri Awaz Yojana and other government departments, which helped it show increased Plan expenditure. BJP councillor M.R. Gopan demanded a special council meeting to discuss the figures in detail.
In her reply, the Mayor laid out the figures of spending under various wings. She said that out of the 1,209 civil works planned for the year, 799 have been completed while 410 are progressing. Civil works of around ₹1 crore has been done in all wards. More beneficiaries were identified across welfare schemes and funds disbursed to all of them. The Corporation provided ₹5.25 lakh each to 306 beneficiaries from the general category and ₹6 lakh each to 292 beneficiaries from the SC category for purchasing land to construct houses. Scholarships were provided to 325 SC students, she said.
Case in Palakkad
On the allegation of making deposits to departments to show high expenditure, she said that these are statutory deposits that all local bodies are required to make. A deposit of ₹10 crore was made to the KSEB and ₹6 crore to the KWA. She also cited the case of the Palakkad municipality, ruled by the BJP, which had made deposits of ₹4 crore, out of a total Plan allocation of just ₹24 crore.
UDF councillor P. Padmakumar moved a resolution condemning the huge hike in fuel prices and also demanding that the Union and State governments cut the taxes. Though LDF councillors supported the resolution, they blamed the Congress-led UPA for decontrolling petrol prices, a move which was later taken forward by the BJP to decontrol diesel prices too, leading to daily hikes in prices. BJP councillors blamed the LDF for not reducing State taxes on fuel. The resolution was passed with amendments and was supported both by the LDF and UDF.
