Mayor Sanyukta Bhatia celebrates one year in office
LUCKNOW: Mayor Sanyukta Bhatia, who took charge on December 12, 2017, celebrated her first year in office with a function at Trilokinath Hall of the Lucknow Municipal Corporation on Wednesday. Governor Ram Naik graced the event as the chief guest and appreciated her work. He also urged her to work harder for improving the city’s sanitation and roads.
Those attending the programme cheered loudly when Naik said he would try and persuade the state government to pay some stipend to the corporators on the pattern of Mumbai where they were paid a monthly stipend of ₹26,000. The corporators here are paid nothing.
“LMC is facing a financial crunch. There are also pending tax amounts of ₹151 crore on state government buildings and ₹81 crore on central buildings,” said the governor, adding that he would also write to the Centre and the state government to bail out the local body by paying the tax amounts.
“I want the local bodies here to become financially self-dependent like the ones in Maharashtra,” he added.
Naik also said that the ₹95 lakh fund that every corporator received for developing his / her ward was enough if they really wanted to work and make a difference in their areas.
On the other hand, in her address, the mayor said that the municipal corporation could become self-sufficient if the 74 amendment (related to the autonomy of local bodies) was implemented in Uttar Pradesh.
Deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma and ministers Suresh Khanna and Rita Bahuguna Joshi were present on the occasion. Meanwhile, LMC employees expressed unhappiness over the ‘lavish events’ organised to celebrate the mayor’s birthday and her first year in office. They complained that while they were not given funds to celebrate ‘Vishwakarma Puja’, ‘Janmashtmi’ and ‘Roza Iftaar’, the mayor spent huge amounts on her programmes.
Employee union leader Rajesh Kumar Singh said, “Employees are not paid their bonuses and salaries on time, but the mayor doesn’t care about them.”