MADURAI: Mayor Indirani Ponvasanth tabled a Rs 5.84 crore surplus budget for the year 2024-25 on Monday. Apart from increasing the annual ward development funds for councillors from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh (an increase of 150%), not many new announcements were made in this year's corporation budget. In comparison with previous year, the revenue and expenditure of the corporation has decreased massively by a large margin, sources said.
In her budget speech, Indirani stated that the corporation's annual revenue through its own resources, funds from government on various schemes and projects, and loans, was worth Rs 1,296.06 crore. "The expenditure, including departmental and employee expenses, maintenance, and loan repayment have been tallied at Rs 1,290.22 crore. A surplus revenue of Rs 5.8 crore has been planned in this year's budget," she added.
The mayor also said, for the Department of Education, the city corporation has enacted special guidance classes, which will be hosted for students in the corporation schools, to train them for competitive exams. A fund of `8.5 crore has been allotted for the development of corporation schools. The ongoing maintenance work in the corporation school will conclude this year, and several other developmental programmes will be initiated using CSR funds, she said, thanking firms for their contribution.
"For the health department, four urban PHCs and two additional PHCs will be set up at a cost of Rs 4.8 crore and Rs 1.2 crore, respectively. So far, over 8.19 lakh people have utilised the existing 45 wellness centres, and medics will be appointed in the remaining 17 centres following the allotment of government funds. In a first, the corporation has procured and stocked rabies vaccine in all PHCs of the city. Also, measures are underway to offer maternal care facilities in PHCs, including the ones in Villapuram, Avaniyapuram, BB Kulam, Sathamangalam and Aruldaspuram. To improve hygiene of the city, solid waste management and cleaning activities will be carried out in the night hours," she said.
To control stray animal menace, the mayor said, ABC measures and vaccines will be administered to 400 dogs per day, and an additional ABC centre will be established after receiving permission from the government. "Some other announcements include the carrying out of maintenance work in all 16 channels running within the city, and upgrading street lights with LED bulbs," she said, and assured that all projects, announced by Chief Minister MK Stalin, including the metro train project, skill development centre, TIDAL park, Olympic academy among others, will be completed in the upcoming years.
Commenting on the budget, Praveen Kumar, a resident of Madurai, said, "It is disappointing that apart from the ongoing projects, there seems to be no new announcement for the city in this budget. Several announcements made in the previous budget including the relocation of onion market and establishment of additional ABC centres, are yet to be completed. We hope that the ongoing Periyar drinking water scheme and other development work will be completed by this year." Meanwhile, several councillors lauded the increase in annual funds, but also demanded the mayor to hike it further to `50 lakh.