The Hindu             17.02.2014

Corporation budget to focus on e-governance, transport

Special Correspondent

Highlighting e-governance projects and developments in urban transport sector, the civic administrators of Kochi Corporation will present their plans for the next fiscal on Monday. They will also put forward a proposal for treating septage in the budget.

B. Bhadra, Deputy Mayor and chairperson of the Finance Standing Committee of the Corporation, will present the budget at the council hall at 10.30 a.m.

According to a civic administrator, the e-governance programme was all set to be launched. City roads are in good condition and the Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority is about to be formed. There had also been significant improvement in the revenue of the local body, which would go up in the coming days, said the civic administrator.

The budget would reflect the ground realities and project the future growth path of the city, said the civic administrator.

At the same time, strained relation between the factions in the Congress is sure to create unpleasant moments for the ruling dispensation.

The ‘I’ faction leaders in the council have openly revolted against the regime and accused the administration of failing to implement any of the promises made earlier.

T.J. Vinod, chairman of the Development Standing Committee of the Corporation, said the administration didn’t take any effort to implement the promises made in the last budgets.

Except for Kochi marathon, the civic administration could not translate into reality any of its promises. A section of the Congress councillors was not involved in the preparatory works. The civic administration had failed in governance, Mr. Vinod said. K.N. Sunilkumar, the parliamentary party secretary of the CPI(M) in the council, pointed out that the civic administration could not take forward projects such as formation of Kochi Metro Transport Corporation, new waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram and development of Thammanam-Pullepady road.

The authorities even backtracked from its earlier decision to assign KITCO the task of preparing project documents for the Pachalam rail overbridge. It had also promised to transport refuse from the city to the waste treatment plant during night hours in covered vehicles. The local body could not keep its word on any of these promises, he said.

The Hindu             17.02.2014

BBMP’s ‘development-oriented’ budget to be presented today

Bangaloreans, who were disappointed that the State Budget did not hold much for the city, are looking with hope at the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). The civic body is all set to present its budget for 2014-15 on Monday.

According to sources, the budget will be a “development oriented” one. The outlay, the sources claimed, will be less than Rs. 8,000 crore. Last year, the amount was Rs. 8,519 crore.

It will focus on improvement of the city’s basic infrastructure, specially drains, footpaths and roads.

Some of the projects that are likely to find a mention are steel bridges between Hudson Circle and Minerva Circle, and another from Shivananda Circle to Seshadripuram Railway Underbridge, and an elevated road between Sony World Junction and Kendriya Sadan in Koramangala.

Funds position

The State Budget had allocated Rs. 1,527 crore to the BBMP under various schemes. That apart, projects worth Rs. 1,500 crore have been approved under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

The civic body has pending bills amounting to Rs. 2,000 crore and outstanding loans of Rs. 3,000 crore.

This year, the BBMP hopes to garner Rs. 3,000 crore through taxes from various sources. To improve revenue through property tax collections, a special cell targeting high value properties has been proposed.

Sources said that with parliamentary elections round the corner, the ruling party in the BBMP Council is expected to announce a few populist schemes to woo voters. Towards this end, the Bharatiya Janata Party has decided not to increase taxes.

Though property tax rates should have been revised, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike has deferred the decision, sources added.

The budget will be presented by the chairperson of the BBMP’s Standing Committee for Taxation and Finance, M.S. Shivaprasad.