The Hindu             11.02.2014

BBMP budget for 2014-15 to be presented on February 17

Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will present budget for the financial year 2014-15 on February 17.

Mayor B.S. Sathyanarayana told presspersons here on Monday that the 2014-15 budget would be realistic. The Standing Committee for Taxation and Finance is reviewing the draft budget.

According to the Mayor, though no new projects would be announced the thrust would be on completion of those being implemented, and also revenue mobilisation.

It may be mentioned that the BJP administration is for the first time presenting the budget before the end of the previous financial year. As per the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976, the budget has to be approved by the council three weeks before the beginning of the next financial year. The previous three budgets had been submitted much after the fiscal year began.

With the Parliamentary polls round the corner, BBMP sources believe that the BJP, which is the ruling party in the BBMP council, may use the budget to announce some populist schemes.

BBMP sources said that the outlay of this budget is likely to be around Rs. 8,000 crore.

While the BJP administration is claiming that the budget will be realistic, the Opposition differs. Jayamahal councillor M.K. Gunashekar pointed out that only 40 per cent of the 2013-14 budget had been implemented.

“The remaining projects will reappear in the budget. BBMP has outstanding loans of Rs. 3,000 crore and pending bills of Rs. 2,000 crore. This budget is not going to be very different from the previous budgets,” he said.

The Hindu             11.02.2014

Getting a birth or death certificate made simpler

A child’s birth certificate will now be issued at the hospital itself, and parents can collect it before clearing the hospital bills.

Similarly, death certificates too will reach relatives of the deceased within three days.

While the new system of issuing birth and death certificates has been in force since February 1, the e-transfer of data from the hospitals to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for quick issuance of the certificates was officially launched here on Monday.

BBMP’s Joint Director (Statistics) D. Shankarappa told presspersons here that the civic body had introduced this system in all the 1,480 private medical hospitals and nursing homes, BBMP’s six referral hospitals and 22 maternity homes, and five government hospitals.

“With the new system, the certificates can be issued at the hospital itself. Earlier, it used to take a week and in some cases, even up to a month. With this, the BBMP has become the first corporation in the country to have such a unique system,” he said.

NIC software

Mr. Shankarappa said the software for the system had been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

He explained that all hospitals have been given a unique user identity and password. The authorised hospital officials have to log in and register the event (either birth or death).

Several measures have been put in place to ensure that there is no misuse. He said each certificate would be pre-printed with the emblems of the Union and State governments, as well as the BBMP emblem as watermark. Apart from a serial number, it would also have a 24-digit security code and a three-dimensional high-security hologram.

Corrections

Mr. Shankarappa said the BBMP had set up 27 registration centres across the city. Citizens could approach these centres or the zonal offices for inclusion of name, correction or delayed registration.

Copies of birth and death certificates would also be available at around 90 BangaloreOne centres and BBMP’s citizen service centres.

He clarified that when someone dies at home, the relatives would have to produce a doctor’s certificate and the receipt from the crematorium or burial ground to apply for a death certificate.

BBMP Commissioner M. Lakshminarayana said that with the new system, inconvenience caused to the citizens would be minimised.