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Health squads promised in all Kochi Corporation divisions

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 05:19 administrator

The Hindu 18.02.2014

Health squads promised in all Kochi Corporation divisions

Special Correspondent

Five-member-strong health squads will tackle public health issues in each Kochi corporation division, if an announcement of the civic authorities materialises.

The annual budget of the corporation has envisioned the formation of such squads. The service of the squads will be available for 200 days during the current fiscal. The squads will focus on health issues identified and suggested by the local councillor.

The functioning of the squads will be subject to social auditing and a public committee will oversee its operations. The squads will also be responsible for cleaning up minor drains in the divisions. With the formation of the squads, the local body would do away with the age-old system of awarding the job to contractors. On an average, the local body spends around Rs. 4 crore for cleaning and de-silting city drains. The squads would do the job in an effective and economic way, said Kochi Mayor Tony Chammany.

The health squads would get a budgetary support of Rs. 3 crore.

The civic administrators are planning to give shape to an action plan for controlling the breeding of mosquitoes in the city. The action plan, which will be formulated with the support of the State government and vector control experts, will focus on controlling the pest menace at its breeding grounds. A specialised wing for pest control and a mosquito control research lab will also be added to the city administration, according to the budget announcement.

The local body has earmarked Rs. 10 crore for mosquito eradication and garbage removal measures.

In her speech, the Deputy Mayor said the city was free of water logging despite Kochi receiving excessive rain during the last monsoon. This was possible, according to her, due to the effective cleaning and dredging of canals. The task of de-silting canals will continue and flying squads of the local body would be asked to monitor the flow of canals and to identify those who are dumping waste in them. The restoration and cleaning up of canals would get a budgetary allocation of Rs. 5 crore, she announced.

Four elevated roads in city

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 05:14 administrator

The Hindu 18.02.2014

Four elevated roads in city

Elevated roads have been proposed to ease congestion on four busy roads of the city including J.C. Road.

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) budget 2014–15, presented on Monday, has announced the construction of an elevated steel bridge from Minerva Circle to Hudson Circle, a need long felt by motorists in south Bangalore commuting to the central business district.

The elevated steel bridge, along with an elevated road from Ejipura Cross on Outer Ring Road to Kendriya Sadan in Koramangala, have already been approved by the Union government under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

The BBMP has also proposed to take up construction of an elevated road from Sirsi Circle to BHEL Circle on Mysore Road in association with Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), which is also implementing the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC). The entry to the BMIC has been proposed near BHEL circle.

The other elevated road project is to be taken up from Race Course Road to railway underbridge via Shivananda Circle. The above projects are expected to start soon.

BBMP budget proposes very few infrastructure projects

Tuesday, 18 February 2014 04:31 administrator

The Hindu 18.02.2014

BBMP budget proposes very few infrastructure projects

Citizens were counting on the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) budget to give a major thrust to infrastructure development. However, the BBMP’s 2014–15 budget, with an outlay of Rs. 7,773.08 crore, lists very few infrastructure projects.

A flyover between Sirsi Circle and BHEL Circle, steel bridges from Minerva Circle to Hudson Circle and Race Course Road to the railway underbridge in Seshadripuram, and an elevated corridor between Ejipura and Kendriya Sadan are among the few mentioned.

The outlay too is lesser than last year’s Rs. 8,519 crore.

Priorities

The budget, which was presented on time unlike in previous years, was placed before the BBMP council on Monday by chairperson of the Standing Committee for Taxation and Finance M.S. Shivaprasad. Mayor B.S. Sathyanarayana hailed it as a “realistic budget”.

Dr. Shivaprasad said the surplus budget was “development oriented and practical”, and had prioritised “good roads, green environs, clean drinking water, scientific solid waste disposal, smooth traffic flow, healthy society and good infrastructure”.

The numbers

During the next fiscal, the BBMP’s estimated revenue, as per the budget, is Rs. 7,779.51 crore. Of this, Rs. 2,661 crore is tax revenue, Rs. 2,260 crore is non-tax revenue, Rs. 1,833.27 crore is government grants and Rs. 976.85 crore is from other incomes.

While the budget takes into account the government grants, including Rs. 1,527 crore announced in the State budget recently, the civic body has urged the government to provide total grants of Rs. 5,000 crore.

Hoping to increase property tax collections, the BBMP has proposed to set up a high-value properties tax recovery cell. The target for the 2014–15 fiscal is Rs. 2,500 crore.

The civic body will also levy betterment charges on converted stray sites and bulk lands and hopes to collect Rs. 400 crore from this source. Once again, revenue collection amounting to Rs. 750 crore by implementing the optic fibre cable police has been featured in the budget.

Other revenue sources include advertisement tax (Rs. 182 crore) and trade licences (Rs. 60 crore).

BBMP Act

The budget also makes a mention of the need for a BBMP Act that would go a long way towards providing good administration.

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