There have been potential evidences to support the fact that the citizen’s participation in budgeting and closer engagement in the civil work monitoring has resulted in better outcome for citizens welfares. The Union Budget which is declared on 1st February is an annual feature which lays out the receipt and expenditure proposal of Government of India (GoI). Also, the state government of about 30 states submit their budgets in respective state assemblies generally during February or March. State budget also receive the same coverage from media as the Union Budget but a bit less coverage than Union one.
The city or the municipal budgets are the one that matter most to common man rather than the Union Budget. No Matter there is no coverage, or these budgets as compared to Union and State Budget but are of great importance to citizens. Every year around 4500+ municipalities where almost 300 million people lives present their budget. These budgets include nothing but, are the people in their region able to live properly, do they have a proper sanitary system, can old people walk safely on roads, do children in the city have a playground to play, or the waste water treated properly? All these are the things that are mentioned in the budget. That is what makes the Municipal budget important.
Citizen participation in budgets or transparency in civic works and tenders are not presently provided in the present law of municipality. Hence there must always be a citizen participation in budget and closer engagement of citizens to get a better outcome an on leakages. This would also make a great difference in the citizen’s life too. Most of the allocation of cities in the state and Union budgets find a way in the municipality budget as municipality implements most of their scheme. Thus, the Municipality budgets as a whole take each every case and difficulties of the resident into consideration and for the better well-being of their citizens, the Municipality budget will thus continue make a real difference in the citizen’s lives.
