Kochi Mayor Soumini Jain presenting a bouquet to Deputy Mayor T.J. Vinod after the latter completed his budget speech in the Kochi Corporation Council on Saturday. more-in The civic administrators of Kochi claimed that the annual budget, which was presented on Saturday, reflected the ambitions of the city residents and addressed their concerns. The financial planning and management of a civic body like Kochi had to be carried out in a realistic manner. Any step in this direction had to be taken with utmost care and planning as the revenue sources were fast shrinking, said Kochi Mayor Soumini Jain and Deputy Mayor T.J. Vinod at the post-budget press conference. The city needed to adopt some tough economic decisions to overcome the impacts of demonetisation and GST. Hence the proposals for tapping new revenue sources, they explained. The civic administrators, in the process, have also proposed to bring star hotels, tourist boats and hospitals under the tax net. The upgradation of the sewage treatment plant at Elamkulam and new such facilities at Edakochi, Fort Kochi and Mattancherry have also been suggested. Gracy Joseph, P.M. Harris, V.K. Minimol, A.B. Sabu, K.V.P. Krishnakumar and Shiny Mathew, chairpersons of various Standing Committees of the civic body, were also present at the press conference. Deputy Mayor slammed At the same time, the Opposition councillors alleged that the Deputy Mayor, who was also the president of the District Congress Committee, failed to apply his mind in the preparation of the budget document. They also accused him of preparing the budget speech in a sloppy manner. The local body could not focus on revenue collection and implement most of the programmes announced in the previous budgets. The budget speech was an attempt to hoodwink the people of the city through hollow promises, alleged K. J. Antony, the CPI(M) leader in the council. V. P. Chandran, another CPI(M) councillor, criticised the civic administration for what he claimed as the flouting of the guidelines issued by the State government on the implementation of annual Plan projects. The Kochi Corporation was the only municipal corporation that failed to hold the development seminar, he said. Poornima Narayan, the chairperson of the Education Standing Committee of the civic body and other LDF councillors were also present.

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