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.