The State government has put on hold the civic budget for the ongoing financial year, effectively putting the brakes on all related tenders and job codes. In a note issued to the Urban Development Department (UDD) on Saturday, Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has said that the BBMP budget, which was approved by the previous government in May, did not have the cabinet’s nod, due to which it could be deemed “illegal”.
He said a new order will be issued after the cabinet discusses and approves the budget, and until then, no job codes should be issued or tenders called for implementation of projects under the budget. BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad said, “We will comply with the Chief Minister’s direction.” The Congress-JDS coalition government had approved an outlay of ₹11,648.90 for 2019-20, which was a ₹1,308.89 crore reduction in the budget estimates of ₹12,957.79 crore.
The BBMP Council had passed the earlier outlay in February, but it had come under criticism for being “unrealistic”. While S.P. Hemalatha, chairperson of the Standing Committee for Taxation and Finance, presented a budget with an outlay of ₹10,688.63 crore on February 18, the council finally passed a budget with an increased outlay of ₹12,957.79 crore. The opposition BJP had alleged violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). The BBMP Commissioner had written to the UDD that the civic body would not be able to implement the budget.