As deadlock continues, LMC budget meeting put off, again

As the standoff between mayor Sushma Kharkwal and dissenting corporators continued, Lucknow Municipal Corporation’s (LMC’s) budget meeting rescheduled for this Tuesday has been postponed to an unknown date. The mayor has confirmed the development.

Amid reconciliation efforts, this was the second time that a meeting of the 12-member executive council to discuss LMC’s proposed ₹4,236 crore budget had to be cancelled. On March 10, it was put off till after Holi due to a boycott by eight members from the Bharatiya Janata Party and two from the Samajwadi Party.

Senior LMC officials confirmed that no mutual agreement regarding the budget allocations could be reached between the corporators and the civic body. The meeting was supposed to discuss and give clearance to the budget for 2025-26. The proposed amount of ₹4,236.63 crore would be spent on traffic system improvement, road repairs, streetlights, sanitation, repair of drainage, park maintenance, etc.

Another official source said on Monday a confidential meeting took place between the mayor, municipal commissioner Inderjit Singh and another BJP leader to discuss the executive committee’s meeting on Tuesday. However, the mayor later confirmed that the executive council’s meeting had been postponed and that another date for it would be announced.

LMC can send proposal directly to govt If the deadlock between the sides continued, LMC might consider bypassing its executive committee and general house and sending the budget proposal directly to the state government before the end of the current financial year on March 31, the sources said.

Additional municipal commissioner Lalit Kumar also said if the executive committee meeting failed to take place, LMC had then the option of sending the budget directly to the government.

“If the executive committee approves the budget, it will be then placed before the LMC House for the final approval before being sent to the government. However, if the meeting is not held, we may have to bypass these steps and send it to the government directly,” Kumar said. He added that a meeting of the general house could be convened only after the executive committee gave its nod to the budget proposal.

The delay has raised some concerns as officials said civic works might suffer a setback if the budget didn’t get timely nod.

Meanwhile, sources said the mayor recently met defence minister and Lucknow MP Rajnath Singh during which she might have discussed the issues arising due to the dissenting corporators.

While acknowledging that she deferred the executive council meeting as she had to go to Delhi, the mayor, however, did not respond to questions regarding the delays.

Some of the corporators from the ruling party previously questioned LMC’s plan to allocate ₹800 crore on cleanliness and sanitation when it generated a revenue of ₹900 crore annually. They also raised concerns over the waste disposal costs.

Show-cause notice served BJP corporator Sushil Tiwari said a show-cause notice had been served on executive committee members from the party who skipped the March 10 meeting. The notice was issued on Monday. Tiwari said the corporators would be presenting their case before the party’s senior leaders. Corporators Mukesh Singh Monty, Anurag Mishra and Umesh Sanwal, who were among those who boycotted the meeting, were unavailable for their comments when approached.