The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has earmarked Rs.
2,271 crore for taking up civic infrastructure works in the forthcoming
financial year of 2013-14 including roads, bridges, drains, street
lighting and housing for the poor. About Rs. 985 crore is for poverty
alleviation targeting the weaker sections in the Rs. 3,800 crore budget
presented by Mayor Mohd. Majid Hussain on Monday.

TDP, BJP protest

The
budget estimates was passed by the council amid protests by the Telugu
Desam and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Opposition parties were
seeking detailed discussions and more allocations to quite a few
sections. The lone Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT) member Mohd. Amjedullah
Khan was lifted out of the hall on the Mayor’s orders following his
insistence on having a say on the budget. Interestingly, the Congress
party, the estranged ally of Majlis, lauded the ‘model’ budget.

During
his presentation, the Mayor declared that the property tax collection
was expected to touch Rs. 950 crore next year with cent per cent
verification of properties bringing all the unassessed, underassessed
and change in land use properties under the tax net without increasing
the tax rates.

A huge quantum of Rs.664.65 crore is slated for
housing, Rs.471.85 crore for land improvement, Rs.431.20 crore for roads
& pavements, Rs.187 crore for buildings & flyovers, Rs 180
crore for storm water drains, etc. MMTS phase two gets a big boost with
Rs.190 crore allocated of the total Rs.641 crore to add 107 km of rails
and to take three lakh commuters a day.

Flyovers or rail bridges
are planned at Tolichowki, Amberpet, Balanagar, Uppuguda, Kandikal Gate,
Safilguda Gate, Tukaram Gate, etc. Road widening is being planned at
Barkas, Barkas, Hi-Tec City, Dargah, Moosapet, Madhapur, Miyapur,
Rahmathnagar, Kavadiguda and other places.

Forty-nine junctions
are to be developed under GHDP while city-level parks are to come up at
Errakunta, Mir Alam Tank, Vasanthnagar, Rock Garden and so on. With Musi
development and Charminar pedestrianisation taken up under JNNURM
continuing as spillover projects, Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) to make the
city slum free will be taking off with 70 slums shortlisted of the total
1,471 for new housing and another 153 slums to get better amenities at a
cost of Rs.550 crore. Sports got Rs.18 crore while Rs.60.85 crore is
for colony parks.

Funds for suburbs

The Telugu Desam
floor leader Singireddy Srinivas Reddy demanded more funds to the
suburbs for civic amenities, better maintenance of graveyards, more
public toilets, mandatory rain water harvesting structure for
households, special package for dengue and malaria control. He also
wanted speedier execution of works.

BJP floor leader Bangaru
Prakash sought a probe into the CoP-11 expenditure while YSR Congress
corporator Harivardhan Reddy wanted the corporators’ budget to be
doubled to Rs. 2 crore.