No lofty promises, BMC will stick to basics

You were promised better water supply, better roads, reduced flooding, less traffic congestion, in the budget delivered by municipal commissioner Jairaj Phatak, last year.
Promises were also made on improving the city’s aesthetic appeal and global image by setting up heritage walks, construction of municipal malls (Palika Bazaars), beautifying open spaces and developing gardens on various themes. Projects for upgrading the quality of life for city’s original inhabitants, the fisherfolk and East Indians residing in Gaothans and Koliwadas, were also listed.

A year on, projects in the core civic areas of water, roads, drainage and parking, have suffered delays. The cosmetic therapy proposed by Phatak and his men is yet to take off. While chalking out Mumbai’s agenda for the next fiscal, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to go back to their core areas of expertise. 
Civic officials said that recession has burnt a big hole in the civic coffers. The civic budget for 2009-10, which will be spelt out by Phatak on February 3, is likely to focus on basic core areas - water shortage, traffic, flooding, and healthcare.

Senior civic officials informed the projects related to water supply, upgrade of drainage and sewerage lines and creation of parking spaces will be given priority in the budget. The health care sector, education sector, security and disaster management and fire brigade, were among the other sectors likely to get a funding boost. Sources revealed that the security and disaster management wings, whose importance has increased post the November 26 terror carnage, were likely to get a 40% increase in funding over last year.

At least 15% more funds were likely to be provided for the health (it got Rs1,545 crore last year) and education (allocated Rs1,360 crore last year). Civic officials said that revenue slump due to recession would mean that even crucial departments like roads, sewerage, are not likely to be given a funding hike. 

Several projects for the beautification of open spaces and theme gardens were delayed this year. These are likely to be included in this year’s budget. BMC has decided to increase the bed strength of suburban hospitals to bring down the horribly skewed patient to bed ratio. On the cards will be reconstruction and redevelopment of the Cooper, Shatabaddi and Bhagwati hospitals in western suburbs, setting up of a super speciality hospital at Govandi in eastern suburbs and construction of a trauma care centre at Jogeshwari. Three new post-mortem centres are expected to come up at Govandi, Shatabdi, Vikhroli.

In the water sector, plans of installing new telescopic meters for customers, a project which did not materialise, this year, is likely to be provided for the next year. BMC was also expected to set aside sizeable funds for tapping new water resources, namely the Middle Vaitarna, Gargai and Pinjal. If last year’s budget served a dream, this year’s budget will strive to transform the same dream into a reality.

Recession to end dream run
The civic budget for 2009-10 will have the word ‘recession’ written all over it. The recession will end a three-year dream run that the richest municipal corporation in the country enjoyed.

From Rs8,000-odd crore in 2006-07, the size of the civic budget leapfrogged to Rs16,702 in 2008-09, riding the back of a boom in the construction industry.
Infrastructure and development projects, both public and private, were responsible for the growth. However, since September last year, the recessionary trend has set in. A senior civic official said that the size of the budget this year will more or less be around last year’s mark.

Phatak to present budget on Monday
The budget to be presented by Jairaj Phatak will be the first ‘outcome budget’, in civic history. Unlike the previous budgets, it will be result-oriented, with specific benchmark and indicators, identified for various civic departments.

The civic body had recently appointed the Society for Development Studies, a New Delhi-based research firm, to conduct a result-oriented evaluation of projects and prepare outcome indicators for various departments. The indicators, which will be specified in this year’s budget, will help the municipal corporation identify whether it has achieved the targets it set out for and to what level have citizens benefited from the project.

Octroi collection soars in January
The biggest revenue earner for the corporation, the octroi department, has made a come back of sorts. After a negative trend in octroi collections in November and December, the collection graph has started peaking again in Janaury. BS Umbaraje, assessor and collector, BMC, informed, that the collections for January were 12% above the collections reported during the same time last year. Till January 28, over Rs3,777.17 crore in octroi levy had been collected for the current fiscal. The department has estimated a collection of Rs4,525 crore for the fiscal. It is unlikely that the target will be made. The positive trend was attributed to collections from bulk crude oil importers.