A day after the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) Mayor R Priya presented the corporation budget for the year 2024-25, the ward councillors across party lines expressed their appreciation of the budget. Council members from All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) praised the budget for its focus on education, healthcare and the welfare of women.
BJP Councillor Uma Anand of ward 134, said, “I appreciate the emphasis placed on education by this budget. Even the initiative about gyms for women in each ward is appreciable.” She also appreciated the government for increasing the councillors’ funds for developing infrastructure in their respective wards.
While appreciating the budget, AIADMK Councillor J John of ward 84 highlighted several announcements from the previous year’s budget yet to be completed. “Around 51 announcements presented in the 2023-24 budget are still being processed and are, therefore, far from complete. Around six of them are completely untouched,” he pointed out. “I request that all these pending announcements proposed last year be carried out successfully so people can reap the benefits,” he added.
Priya responded, “None of the announcements have been abandoned by the corporation. They are in the process of being completed and the delay has been caused by several factors. We are handling them and they will all soon be completed.”
The budget presented for 2024-25 has focused on women, education, public health, and flood mitigation. The Mayor announced on Wednesday, February 22, that Chennai women are to have exclusive gyms in each ward and a call centre will be set up to monitor the women who have high-risk pregnancies in all the 15 zones. The modernisation of the 192 burial grounds in the city limits is also in the pipeline, and the corporation is planning to develop an app to know the location of the public toilets in the city to help monitor and maintain them.