Opposition Congress places its budget proposal in AMC

The opposition party on Friday proposed a Rs237.61 crore budget for the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) for the year 2012-13.

The budget proposed by leader of opposition Badruddin Shaikh, consists of ambitious plans for the city. Shaikh proposed to build a new general hospital in New West Zone and East Zone of the city in the budget of Rs 20 crore. Shaikh says, "We have also added Rs 5 crore for the development of the area near Gandhi Ashram and Dandi Bridge. Every year we present this agenda in the budget meetings and the ruling party doesn't accept this, which is a mockery of Mahatma Gandhi."

The budget also includes recovering of property tax from the newly included areas of the city, as they are a part of Ahmedabad too.

"We also wanted to use the latest technology for road safety, with which a uniform policy can be drawn up for the road drivers. Presently, the drivers and commuters face a lot of problems due to the broken dividers. With uniform dividers, we want to standardise the roads like other major Indian cities."

In the budget of the opposition party, Rs 2 crore has been allotted for the development of the 132 feet ring road, which will be built up like CG Road.

Shaikh added that the state government's grant is reducing over the years. In 2011-12, Rs510.30 crore less was granted by the state government, which fell to Rs631 crore less than the proposal demanded by the AMC.