Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena on Friday presented a Rs 500-crore budget for the 2015-16 fiscal. The main income for the civic body will come from collection of parking fee and users’ charge, among many others sources.
The BMC Mayor said as per the Gazette notification of the State Government the civic body will collect users’ fee ranging from Rs 50 to Rs 200 from households, hospitals, hotels, hospitals and other establishments from March 1 as per the new chart. According to BMC Commissioner Krishan Kumar the budget focused on proper road, drainage facility and environment protection.
While the budgetary allocation for each ward has been enhanced from Rs 40 lakh to 70 lakh in the 2015-16 financial year the corporators have been advised to spend 20 per cent of the same for the construction of houses for slum dwellers residing at 437 slums under Rajiv Awas Yojana in their respective wards. According to sources the parking charges starting from cycles to four wheelers has been enhanced from Re 1 to Rs 25.
However, the budget allocation has evoked mixed response among the corportaors. “This is a populist budget as more allocation has been provisioned for a ward than the last year,” said corporator Amresh Jena.
