Pune: Only 70 citizens submitted their suggestions after Standing Committee’s appeal for suggestions for the civic budget 2018-19. Most of the suggestions are based on local issues rather than suggesting policy for development of the city. 
When the corporation is facing issues of revenue generation and utilisation of funds, it was expected that people would give suggestions for effective utilisation of funds.

Pune Municipal Commissioner Kunal Kumar tabled the draft budget of Rs 5,397 crore for the year 2018-19. Now, the Standing Committee will present its final budget by the end of February.

While speaking to Sakal Times, Murlidhar Mohol, Chairman of Standing Committee, said, “We have received suggestions from our Information Technology (IT) department and we are sorting them out.”

He said, “Though response is not enthusiastic, it is just a first attempt and will grow gradually in the subsequent budgets.” 
Rahul Jagtap, Head of IT Department of the corporation, said, “The Standing Committee chairman had given a deadline of registering for online suggestions till February 10, 2018. We received 70 suggestions and forwarded them to the Standing Committee for analysis.” 

This is the first time that ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) decided to involve citizens in the budget. Mohol had appealed to citizens to give suggestions. The appeal said the citizens’ ideas will be incorporated in the committee’s budget.