This year's budget is about Rs 10 crore more than last year's budget of Rs 15 crore.

Talking to ``Newsline'', Municipal Council president Harinder Pal Singh said that the thrust of council would be on building roads for which an amount of Rs 5 crore has been earmarked. Apart from this, a sum of Rs 50 lakh would be spent on maintenance of the roads.

An amount of Rs 2.75 crore has been made available for augmentation of water supply and laying down of pipelines in industrial areas.

Singh said that Rs 1 crore would be spent on maintenance of street lights. An amount of Rs 1.40 crore has been set aside for the payment of electricity bills of the MC office and street lights and Rs 1.50 crore would be spent on payment of tubewell bills. For improving and upgrading slum areas, an amount of Rs 80 lakh has been allocated. While an amount of Rs 60 lakh would be used for maintenance of parks, Rs 30 lakh would be used for granting housing loans to MC employees.

An amount of Rs 40 lakh has been allocated for building roads, gullies and cleaning of curve channels. Rs 1 crore has been sanctioned for construction of the new Municipal Council office building in the township.

The MC president said that the expected opening balance as on April 1, '99 would be Rs 8 crore, proposed income from all sources Rs 16.9 crore, proposed expenditure Rs 22.60 crore and profit would be Rs 2.30 crore.

The Municipal Council expects to collect a revenue of Rs 14.64 crore from octroi and Rs 2.08 crore from other sources in form of taxes.