The Times of India                  01.02.2013

Pune Municipal Corporation general body okays Rs 4,167-cr budget for next fiscal

PUNE: The general body of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Thursday approved the Rs 4,167.5-crore budget for the 2013-14 fiscal, marking the first time that the civic budget has crossed the Rs 4,000 crore figure.

Standing committee chairman Baburao Chandere had proposed a hike of around Rs 562.48 crore in the budget submitted by the municipal commissioner, Mahesh Pathak.

The revised budget was discussed in the general body meeting on Thursday. The elected members criticized the chairman saying the budget that he had presented concentrated on the Kothrud assembly areas to nurture his political aspirations. "The budget has not done justice to all parties in the house," said Vasant More, leader of opposition, adding, "Additional income sources should be found and funds should be distributed equally to all areas."

"The local body tax is expected to be implemented from the next financial year. There are chances that the income will go down but the chairman increased the budget by over Rs 500 crore," said Arvind Shinde, Congress leader in the PMC.

Deputy mayor Deepak Mankar said, "The budget has failed to find new ways to strengthen PMC schools."

Refuting More's allegations, Chandere said the budget will fulfill needs of all the areas in the city. "Income for the additional Rs 560 crore will be raised from property tax, building permissions and loans," he added.

The budget includes projects such as development of merged villages, programmes under the Kothrud development fund, road construction, rehabilitation of commercial sex workers, welfare of the girl child and supply of drinking water through tankers.