Thiruvananthapuram: The city corporation budget for 2019-20 fiscal will be passed by the council after voting on Saturday. The first day of the budget discussion on Friday ended on a stormy note with the BJP councillors staging a protest against the remark made by the development standing committee chairman Vanchiyoor P. Babu. Following the ruckus, Mayor V.K. Prasanth called it a day.
BJP parliamentary party leader M.R. Gopan said that the ruling front was trying to provoke them to pass the budget without any discussion. “The remark made by Babu hurts the religious sentiments. They are deliberately trying to provoke us so that the discussion gets disrupted. But this will not work tomorrow. We will sit through, take part in the discussion and vote against the budget,” said Mr Gopan.
UDF councillors have not decided whether to vote for or against the budget. “We haven’t taken a decision yet. If we vote against the budget, everyone will say that we are supporting the BJP. In the present political climate, this is a very sensitive issue. We will reach a decision tonight,” said UDF councillor Anil Kumar.
The LDF-led ruling front presented a Rs 73-crore surplus budget with total expected revenue of Rs 1,286 crore and an outlay of Rs 1,213 crore.
