KOCHI: The Opposition councillors in the Kochi corporation have alleged that the move to publish a booklet on the achievements of the corporation in the past five years, spending Rs 50 lakh is a tactic to garner votes in the upcoming local body election and said that the public’s tax money should not be used for election publicity of any political party.
“With only a few months left for the local self-government elections, `50 lakh has been allocated in the 2024-25 budget to publish a booklet on the corporation’s achievements and distribute it in the households.
The public’s tax money should be spent on welfare and development activities, and the money for the election campaign should only be spent from the party fund,” said Antony Kureethara, the Leader of the Opposition, adding that the budget has been presented without even allocating funds for some divisions.
The UDF councillors stated that the move to publish the list of achievements would be strongly opposed. “The arrears of property tax have increased since 2016. The government has also raised the property tax, and we are collecting an additional service tax. The residents are paying tax for the development of the city,” said M G Aristottil, the UDF parliamentary party secretary.