Chandigarh mayor called the budget meet, MC chief tells UT admn

Days after the local bodies secretary sought an explanation from municipal commissioner Anindita Mitra on how the budget meeting was conducted on March 6 when orders were given to defer it, Mitra clarified on Monday that “it was the mayor’s decision to call the meeting”.
Mitra wrote, “The mayor decided to conduct the meeting of the general House and directed the undersigned (commissioner) to circulate the budget and brief the House. In compliance with the above, the budget was circulated and the chief accounts officer was deputed to brief the House.”
“It is further submitted that Section 86 of the MC Act mandates that the budget estimates are required to be adopted by the corporation in the first week of February and these are to be submitted to the government no later than the first week of February. The brief proposals of revised estimates and budget estimates are submitted. It is humbly submitted that a decision with respect to the budget estimates be taken as per the provision of the Punjab MC Act, as extended to UT,” Mitra added.
After the mayor notified the budget meeting for March 6 and F&CC elections for March 11, citing that the budget cannot be presented before a discussion by the F&CC, the BJP councillors had on March 5 written to the UT local bodies secretary and MC commissioner to defer the budget meeting. After receiving the councillors’ written request, the local bodies department had sent it to the standing counsels for legal opinion.
On March 6, just eight minutes before the scheduled time of 11 am, MC secretary Shambhu Rathee issued a letter to the mayor , reading, “The legal opinion from the senior standing counsel of the UT administration suggested that the budget session or any special session cannot be called before the constitution of finance and contract committee (F&CC) as per law. You are requested to cancel the budget session scheduled on March 6 and special session scheduled for March 7.”
However, notwithstanding the intimation, mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor had proceeded to convene the meeting and passed the MC budget for financial year 2024-25. Skipping the meeting, BJP councillors had termed the proceedings “illegal and invalid”.
Later in the day, the local bodies secretary had sought an explanation from Mitra.