TIRUNELVELI : Tirunelveli Mayor PM Saravanan tabled a Rs 4.79 crore surplus budget for 2024-25, in the presence of deputy mayor KR Raju and corporation commissioner Shubham Dnyandeorao Thakare on Friday.
In his budget speech, Saravanan announced that a new sewage plant worth Rs 91.91 crore would be established at Ramayanpatti, with help from a German bank and Tamil Nadu Urban Development Funds.
“The tender for this project will be floated on March 28. Works to supply water 24*7 to residents of the corporation will be carried out for Rs 26.48 crore under the Amrut 2.0 scheme. Apart from this, 263 road works will be carried out at an outlay of Rs 26.91 crore under the Tamil Nadu Urban Road Infrastructure Programme. Under the National Urban Livelihood Mission scheme, another building to accommodate attendants of inpatients will be built for Rs 80 lakh at the Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital,” the mayor stated.
Apart from this, nine anganwadi centres for Rs 1.69 crore, an additional building to Quaid-E-Millat corporation higher secondary school for Rs 3 crore and an overhead water tank for Rs 60 lakh in Melanatham would be constructed, Saravanan said.
Saravanan further said the corporation had so far provided drinking water connection to 85,452 houses. "About 20,000 houses will get new connections during the financial year 2024-25. The corporation will allot Rs 5 crore to renovate three ponds to recharge groundwater. As many as 27,188 houses have been connected to the underground sewage system so far. During the financial year, 26,000 more houses will be connected with this system and in the financial year 2025-26, 43,500 houses will be connected. The corporation is also aiding 34 primary schools, five middle schools, a high school and five higher secondary schools. During the current financial year, Rs 16 crore will be spent to build new classrooms and smart classrooms, and installation of CCTV cameras and renovation works will be carried out," he added.
DMK councillors lodge protest
While the budget session was planned at 10 am, most DMK councillors arrived around 11.30 am, protesting against Saravanan. They staged a walkout soon after the budget was presented to the mayor. At about 11.55 am, only five councillors were present at the meeting while Saravanan was reading the budget. It may be noted that the commissioner first convened the council meeting on February 28 to table the budget, which was then postponed due to a lack of quorum.