Mayor Krishna Gaur on Monday presented Rs 1,901.22-crore annual budget of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) in the general council meeting amid din by the Opposition benches.
The budget for 2013-14 has income provisions of Rs 1,841.10 crore while expenditure would be Rs 1,901.22 crore. Five per cent of the revenue earned would be kept as security fund. This comes to Rs 2,896.36 lakh. Hence, the budget deficit stands at Rs 89.15 crore.
Gaur presented the budget as per the expectations of the people and provided relief to the residents of the State capital in an election year. No new taxes were proposed nor were the existing taxes raised. Many development schemes figure in the budget presented on Monday, though most of the schemes rely on Central government funds.
The mayor by continuing with the existing water and property tax rates provided major relief to the locals. She also announced the proposal for construction of a flyover from Kali Mata Mandir via Bharat Talkies to Alpana trisection at a cost of Rs 15 crore.
There are provisions of continuous development work in the city through Central and State government schemes. An allocation of Rs 500 crore has been made for the purpose. Special provisions have been made in the budget for Govindpura and Bairagarh localities.
Though the mayor has tried to provide relief to the existing water consumers of the city, she has made provisions to burden the new water tap connection seekers by increasing the new connection rates three fold.
Overall, the budget of the BMC for 2013-14 depends mainly on the Central government schemes and funds. The BMC budget has for the first time come up with the provision of establishing hawker corner for women. Women hawker corners would be constructed at different places of the city at a cost of Rs 50 lakh to provide employment to women. The waste collection scheme from houses would be extended to all the 70 wards of the city. The budget has also focused attention on the children of BMC employees as provision has been made for those children who top in various examinations. They would be given a laptop.
Provisions of constructing graveyards and crematoriums at two different places at a cost of Rs 50 lakh each have also been made in the budget.