While politicians and citizens welcomed the initiatives declared in the surplus budget, most were skeptical of the implementation of major initiatives announced in the budget.
While politicians and citizens welcomed the initiatives declared in the surplus budget, most were skeptical of the implementation of major initiatives announced in the budget.
Congress corporator Vinod Shekhar went to the extent of terming the provisions like smart cards for citizens and mega citizen facilitation centres among other as building castles in the air. Even RTI activist Kewal Semlani said BMC’s budgetary declaration paint a rosy picture but the civic body faulters in its implementation.
If BMC’s performance in the last two years is any indicator, then there is merit in the opinions expressed by the two. While BMC provided a Rs12,866.22 crore budget last year, it could only spend 50 % of the funds. The situation was no different in 2006.
In fact, many of the initiatives announced in last year’s budget, including construction of Palika Bazaars or municipal malls where all retail shopping services are to be offered under one umbrella and a proposal to develop new open spaces in the city (Rs5 crore) have resurfaced.
One of the highlights of the current fiscal exercise, Rs1 per day allowance for girl students from BMC schools to encourage education, also reflected as a key focus area in last year’s budget.
Municipal commissioner Jairaj Phatak said the budget could only be presented in June last year with civic elections held in February. Not much work could be done in the four months of monsoon.
Effectively, civic staff got only four months to implement various projects. Terming this year’s budget as one which would push city’s growth further, Phatak assured better implementation of funds this time around.
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