People to have input on budget plans

The new government of the Indian capital will let the people decide its annual municipal budget by seeking opinions from the constituencies that voted the anti-graft Aam Aadmi Party to power last month, local media reported on Wednesday.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is president of the AAP, will begin a pilot project to get citizens’ views for area- specific budget planning for the 2015-16 fiscal year, the Times of India said.

Up to 10 assembly constituencies will be selected next month for the “experiment plan” and feedback will be used to shape budget allocations, said the report.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised to give local state and municipal governments more power in deciding their own budget plans while the national budget, to be announced next week by the central government, will guarantee funding for the projects.

“We want to try an experiment by involving people in area-centric budget planning. It will be a policy of the people and they would make the budget,” the newspaper quoted Kejriwal as saying.

“At present budgets are made each year with depart- ments seeking a budget for their various projects. The budget amount keeps going up but a person who may have been waiting for a new road in his area for years may still not get covered. Now we want to bridge this gap and remove the discrepancies by going out to the people,” he added.

The AAP came to power in a landslide victory by taking 67 out of 70 seats in the local assembly.