Gorakhpur Municipal Corporation. Awakening
Jagran correspondent, Gorakhpur. The board approved the biggest ever budget of the Municipal Corporation with an income of Rs 1878 crore. Apart from this, many big and far-reaching decisions were taken this time in the Municipal Corporation Board meeting chaired by Mayor Dr. Manglesh Srivastava. Now each councilor will be able to spend Rs 70 lakh each from his own fund for development works in his respective ward.
Also, if Gorakhpur Municipal Corporation gets the first position in the country in the Swachh Survekshan, then additional Rs 30 lakh each will be provided to all the councilors for carrying out development work in their respective wards. At the same time, the issue of passing the map by the Municipal Corporation instead of the GDA and giving honorarium to the councilors was again raised in the board meeting. Rural MLA Vipin Singh, who reached the meeting, assured to raise the matter in the Assembly.
A board meeting was held at the Municipal Corporation House on Thursday. The Municipal Corporation's budget of Rs 187807.45 crore income and Rs 126820.50 crore expenditure was unanimously approved. Rural MLA Vipin Singh also attended the meeting. The councilors raised the demand of giving the Municipal Corporation the right to approve the maps of buildings to be constructed in the city.
Presently this work is done through Gorakhpur Development Authority (GDA). The councilors argued that when the Municipal Corporation area has expanded and the responsibility of development works rests with the Corporation, then the process of passing the map should also be done through the Municipal Corporation.
Apart from this, a demand was also raised to fix the monthly allowance of councilors and increase it. The Mayor and Municipal Commissioner said that the Rural MLA has assured to raise both the issues in the Assembly. This has given hope to the councilors that a concrete decision can be taken in this direction in the coming time.
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Demand to increase councilor fund to Rs 1 crore, Mayor remained silent. During the meeting, many councilors demanded to increase the councilor fund to Rs 1 crore. He said that considering the increasing population and expansion of wards, even Rs 70 lakh is not enough. The rural MLA was requested to take positive initiative in this regard before the Mayor and Municipal Commissioner.
Although the MLA, while giving advice to the councilors of the ruling party, said that generally such a demand should come from the opposition and the ruling party should support it, but here the situation seems to be the opposite. On this, Samajwadi Party councilor Shahab Ansari again requested the MLA, but no immediate consensus could be reached on this issue.
However, the Municipal Commissioner later announced to increase the councilor fund from Rs 60 lakh to Rs 70 lakh. It was also said that on coming number one in the Swachh Survekshan, all the councilors will be given an additional Rs 30 lakh each for the development of the ward. However, the Mayor remained silent in the entire matter and said that if I speak, the refusal will backfire. Uproar in the meeting over the word 'Mafia of Samajwadi Party' At one time the atmosphere became heated during the meeting. Dharamshala Ward Councilor Chhathi Lal Gupta alleged that the Municipal Corporation land has been occupied by the mafia associated with SP for a long time and the Corporation administration has remained inactive. Memorandum has been given several times in this regard. Samajwadi Party councilors expressed strong opposition to this and said that it is not appropriate to make allegations in the name of any political party.
The debate continued for a long time, but later the matter was calmed down due to the intervention of the Mayor and senior members. In the meeting, Shivajinagar councilor Sangeeta Singh demanded relief from the problem of jam due to illegal occupation of canal land from Rustampur Dhale to Badgo via Azad Chowk.
Digvijay Nagar Ward Councilor Rishi Mohan Verma raised the demand to stop fake complaints in IGRS. Madan Mohan Malviya Nagar ward councilor Raja Yadav raised various demands including construction of accessible toilet at Ranidiha intersection. Agra Municipal Corporation has increased the budget of Gorakhpur. Municipal Commissioner Gaurav Singh Sogarwal said that the size of the budget has become very big. Earlier the budget was only Rs 800 crores, now it has increased to more than Rs 1800 crores. Its size has now become much more than Agra Municipal Corporation. This proves that Gorakhpur Municipal Corporation is continuously doing development work. A lot of help is also being received from the government. Important decisions were also taken with special emphasis on public works and water supply.
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