Tilhar, Shahjahanpur. The budget board meeting of the Municipal Council for the financial year 2026-27 on Thursday was in the news due to questions of corruption, irregularities and accountability more than development plans. The budget of about Rs 45.70 crore was passed unanimously, but during the meeting the councilors made a series of serious allegations one after the other against the municipal administration. There was a huge uproar over issues like occupation of government properties, suspicious tenders, hiding of information and arbitrary working style.
While presenting the budget in the meeting chaired by Chairman Hazra Begum and Executive Officer Sunil Kumar, the officials talked about giving priority to city development, road, drain construction, cleanliness, salary and pension. Amidst the claims of the officials, the councilors started raising sharp questions on the system. Councilor Dilip Kumar Saxena (Akku) alleged that in the cases related to the government properties worth crores of rupees of the municipality, the lawyer of the municipality is working against the interests of the city. He said that if an impartial investigation is conducted, many shocking facts may come to light. He demanded a high-level investigation into the entire matter and action against the culprits.
Councilor Sushil Kumar Singh termed the non-disclosure of pending information from the year 2024 as a question on transparency and said, what kind of information is there which is being hidden even after two years. He raised questions on the drain cleaning tender of Rs 16 lakh and alleged that when the work of removing the debris was done by the municipal employees, then on what basis was the payment of lakhs of rupees to the contractor. He also raised the demand for investigation into financial irregularities in government works. The matter became more heated when details of 15 contractual employees said to be working at the Chairman’s residence were sought. It is alleged that instead of giving a clear answer, there was procrastination, on which a heated argument broke out between the councilors and the municipal administration.
In the meeting, many councilors also criticized the administration for not removing illegal encroachment on municipal lands, continuous neglect of public representatives, not even answering the phone, bad roads, waterlogging and poor sanitation system. He said that the problems of the city are increasing, but the responsible officers are busy only in showing development on paper. Amidst the ever increasing protests and allegations, Executive Officer Sunil Kumar assured to investigate all the complaints and take action if found guilty. After this, the budget of Rs 45.70 crore was passed amidst the uproar.
Comments are closed.