Mayor Gautam Deb on Tuesday tabled the annual budget of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation for the 2025-2026 fiscal with a total estimate of ₹685.24 crore, a whooping increase of around 48 per cent in the allocation as compared to the current financial year.

The total budget estimate was ₹334.67 crore in 2024-2025, Deb said in his speech.

“We today placed the budget which gave impetus to infrastructure development. A slew of infrastructural projects are in progress and in the coming fiscal, we want to take up some more projects to provide enhanced civic services to Siliguri residents,” said
the mayor.

Asked about the budget deficit of ₹12.40 crore, Deb claimed the SMC would bridge it in due course.

“We will cover up the deficit by reducing the revenue expenditure and increasing our earnings from various sources,” he added.

Some of the infrastructural projects mentioned in the budget were the construction of new roads, improvement of the sewerage system, setting up of more canteens for the poor, disaster management, improvement of riverfronts and installation of tube wells.

In north Bengal, SMC is the largest civic body, spanning over an area of around 42 square kilometres and comprises 47 wards.

According to the budget estimate, over ₹500 crore would be spent on infrastructure, drinking water supply, development or renovation of sports facilities and some ancillary works.

While tabling the budget, Deb, a veteran TMC leader, also announced the allocation of funds for extending financial assistance to the economically weaker section of people in the civic area and for the development of slums.

The mayor said in the next fiscal, ₹189 crore would be allocated for the purpose.

To drive home his point, Deb furnished figures and mentioned that as of now, 7,389 residents of the SMC area are getting the old-age pension, while another 8,799 women are getting the widow pension.

So far, 93, 027 women are covered under the Laxmir Bhandar scheme of the state in the civic area, he claimed.

“The number of beneficiaries under the Housing for All scheme, is 4,066 and in the next fiscal, we will bring another 500-odd families under the scheme,” said Deb.

He also announced an annual hike of ₹60,000 in the local area (ward-wise) development fund of the civic councillors. So far, they used to get an annual fund of ₹8.20 lakh, which will increase to ₹8.80 lakh for them.

Opposition councillors said the budget was “unrealistic”.

“It is an unplanned and unrealistic budget. We doubt whether the board would be able to achieve even half of what the announcements were made today,” said Amit Jain, a BJP councillor and the leader of the opposition at the SMC.