The New Indian Express 31.08.2010
BBMP makes bruhat plans
BANGALORE: After much delay and dodging, an ambitious Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike budget was presented on Monday. Presenting the Rs 8,488 crore budget, chairman of the Finance and Taxation committee, P N Sadashiva, announced grandiose development and welfare plans for the city and hoped to fund them with additional commercial taxes.He promised parking malls, business complexes, signal free corridors and traffic management centres to decongest the city's roads.
And with a bigger Bangalore with more wards, Sadashiva announced Rs 2 crore to old wards and Rs 3 crore for new wards and nearly Rs 30 crore for setting up ward offices in new wards.
The longpending remodelling of the Kalasipalyam bus station will be taken up at a cost of Rs 226 crore in a joint venture with the BMTC.
Welfare schemes, expectedly, got a substantial allocation. While public health engineering got Rs 244 crore, other health schemes were given Rs 91.83 crore. Generous doles for welfare activities for women and SC/STs amounting to more than Rs 620 crore and Rs 47.75 crore for education made up a long list of sops. The city's sports and culture would receive a Rs 55.33 crore push.
And to preserve and restore the city's greenery and lakes, Sadashiva announced Rs 39 crore for forestry and Rs10 crore for the development of tree parks and `98 crore for lake development.
He stated that various developmental works worth Rs 550 crore would be undertaken in all wards of the city.
Optimistic that he would be able raise the resources for these plans, Sadashiva said the AkramaSakrama scheme would generate Rs 750 crore in the given year and property tax expectations would be around Rs 1,500 crore. He said that the adoption of Unit Area Value (UAV) system as the basis for assessment of tax had yielded good results. Stressing on the inclusion of nearly 56 lakh properties under the tax net, he justified the expectations of property tax.
He also announced an advertisement tax that would potentially fetch the palike more than Rs 100 crore.
Other notable allocations included the Rs 40 crore for the approach road to airport road and Rs 44 crore for widening of Bellary and Jayamahal Roads up to Mekhri Circle.
