The Hindu 27.03.2013
Budget fails to address drinking water crisis in Alappuzha
The budget of Alappuzha Municipality for 2013-14, presented by vice-chairman B. Ansari on Tuesday failed to address the region’s pressing drinking water problem.
However, it provided some succour to fishermen who are facing various challenges. Mr. Ansari said the budget would provide Rs.10 lakh to fishermen, inland and sea, to buy fishing nets, Rs.10 lakh for a sanitation project for families of fishermen, Rs.3 lakh for providing bicycles to schoolchildren in fishermen families and Rs.1 lakh for providing them solar lamps.
The surplus budget shows revenue of Rs 92.41 crore, including carryover from last year, and an expenditure of Rs.81.97 crore.
Alappuzha is perhaps the only town in the State with no private bus stand. The budget reiterated the long pending demand for a private bus stand mentioned in the previous budget and allocated Rs.12 lakh for it.
The budget seeks to increase revenue by raising taxes on houseboats and timber, and by constructing building complexes and apartments on plots owned by the municipality. The budget has not proposed any new Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants in the town, which is reeling under severe drinking water crisis.
The budget also envisages a convention centre near the beach, for which Rs.12 lakh has been allotted. Rs.1 crore has been earmarked for a shopping complex at the municipality plot in Kongini Chudukkad. A total of Rs.50 lakh has been set apart for pulling down the existing Sathram shopping complex and building a new one. A total of Rs.2.5 crore has been set apart for the construction of fish market at Valiyakulam and a corpus fund of Rs 4.16 crore for road modernisation in 52 wards.
The municipality has planned to go solar by allotting Rs.25 lakh for setting up solar lamps in slums in the town.
The second phase of the EMS housing scheme will get Rs.7.5 crore, while Rs.40 lakh has been allotted for the construction of houses for mentally challenged persons.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme will get Rs 1.04 crore.
Biogas plants to process waste at its source will be alloted Rs.2 crore.
A three-day health mela in the municipality is one of the schemes that have been proposed. Opposition leader Thomas Joseph said the vice chairman was befooling the people by presenting a ‘repetitive’ budget.
“The proposal to buy country boats and nets for fishermen is itself nine years old. The municipality is not interested in implementing the schemes announced in the budget. The budget is a total failure,” he said.
The Public Works Standing committee chairman
and LDF Parliamentary leader V.G. Vishnu said the budget was in sync
with the hopes of all sections of people in the municipal area.
