Bengaluru: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Wednesday presented its budget 2018-19 with an outlay of Rs 9,326.87 crore. With revenue expenditure of Rs 9,325.53 crore, the budget has a surplus of Rs 1.34 crore. Keeping the forthcoming Assembly elections in mind, a number of sops were announced to woo poor, youth, senior citizens and women.
Some of the salient schemes and projects include an air ambulance service for which Rs 5 crore is allotted in each zone for construction of helipad. The budget proposes to develop Bellahalli quarry which is filled with construction and demolition debris as a race track for motor sports. The penalty amount for dumping waste into drains and lake will be Rs 1 lakh and for the subsequent offence, Rs 5 lakh will be levied.
The parents of girls born on January 1 this year, will be given Rs 5 lakh for the child’s education. Janaoushada centres where medicines will be given for lesser price will have units set up at BBMP hospitals as well as Indira canteens.
The budget was presented by JD(S) Corporator M Mahadev who is also Chairman, BBMP Standing Committee (Taxation and Finance). The budget aims to focus on clean, green and Healthy Bengaluru. This year, 10 per cent of the total estimated expenditure is reserved for construction of rainwater harvesting facilities at drains. RWH will also be focused at BBMP parks, all government and education buildings and also RWH pits at nurseries to preserve groundwater level. For a greener city, Rs 45.26 crore is allotted where they propose to plant 200 saplings in each ward along with tree guard. Medicinal plants will be planted at lakeside. This year, they also proposed to plant fruit-bearing plants/trees for birds and animals at lakeside. Solar plants at all BBMP offices will be installed.
In spite of not reaching even half the target for the year 2017-18, revenue mobilisation has been shown more than their capacity. They have estimated Rs 3,317 crore from property tax including major commercial buildings. They also estimated Rs 75.25 crore from Advertisement tax, Rs 200 crore from road cutting charges to lay OFC, Rs 768 crore from building license fee, Rs 50 crore from mobile tower fee and other revenue. They have also shown Rs 90 crore from shop rents, Rs 60 crore from service charges, Rs 57 crore from trade license and Rs 300 crore from betterment charges.
The budget also proposes construction of multi-storeyed dwelling apartments for slum dwellers under PPP model on pilot basis. For disabled, various equipment including Jaipur foot, tricycles, walking sticks, hearing aid, spectacles for the concerned were announced. For senior citizens, a sum of Rs 5 crore was announced to provide rooms at appropriate places and also to construct halls for conducting cultural programmes announced. For as many as 100 senior citizens in each ward, walking sticks will be distributed. Free bus passes for transgenders were announced too. For poor, five freezers will be set up for each zone to preserve the dead bodies of poor in case of delayed cremation.
BBMP budget also focused on introducing insurance scheme for students studying in all BBMP schools and college to be introduced from this year. To encourage students to pursue higher education, Rs 25,000 for 150 top students in SSLC and Rs 35,000 for 150 top second PU students has been announced. Kala Bhavan will be constructed at all five new zones to encourage musical and cultural programmes.
On technology, the budget focused on free WiFi at 400 places across major roads, bus stations and also at BBMP offices. To solve parking woes, BBMP will have automated parking system at all its markets and commercial areas. For BBMP employees, Aadhar number based bio-metric attendance system at all the zones will be set up.
