The Hindu 24.03.2017
More outlay for health, sanitation
Kozhikode Corporation Budget lays stress on education, infrastructure development
Health and sanitation received top attention in the 2017-18 corporation Budget which was presented on Thursday.
Presenting
the Budget, Deputy Mayor and chairperson of the finance standing
committee Meera Darshak said the civic body planned to improve the
functioning of health centres in the city in such a way that the poor
would have easy access to health care.
The Budget has set aside Rs. 1 crore for the establishment of a health complex at West Hill. More cleaning staff will be hired.
Efforts
will be made to make the city plastic-free by setting up plastic
shredding centres and reviving the plastic recycling unit at West Hill.
There is also a plan to impose penalties on those who use plastic of less than 50 micron thickness, Ms. Darshak said.
Stress has also been laid on welfare, education, and infrastructure development.
Surplus Budget
She presented a surplus Budget with a projected revenue of Rs. 398 crore and expenditure of Rs. 385 crore.
The
revenue includes a carry-over amount of Rs. 32.55 crore from the
previous financial year, revenue income of Rs. 199.67 crore, and capital
income of Rs. 165.77 crore. The Budget proposes a surplus of Rs. 12.13
crore.
The Deputy Mayor also presented a revised Budget for the
financial year 2016-17 with an income of Rs. 324.58 crore and
expenditure of Rs. 292.02 crore. The hour-long Budget session was
chaired by Mayor Thottathil Raveendran, who, in his introductory speech,
stressed the need to regain public participation in local
self-governance at a time when it was entering its second phase.
He
urged the public, their representatives as well as officials to work in
tandem to make the second phase of local self-governance a success.
Staff shortage
The
Mayor pointed out that scarcity of staff was a major hurdle to the
smooth functioning of the corporation office, and that appointment of
more staffers was being considered.
He appreciated the efforts of the staff who often worked overtime for speedy disposal of files.
The Budget will be put to discussion on Friday and Saturday, at the end of which, it will be passed with amendments if any.