Rs 32 crore deficit BMC budget presented

Bhopal, Mar 28 (UNI) A deficit budget of Rs 32 crore for the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) for 2007-08 was presented by Mayor Sunil Sood here today.

Presenting the Rs 748.13 crore budget, Mr Sood said the income of the BMC income was expected to be Rs 50.97 crore in 2007-08 as against Rs 42.98 crore earned in 2006-07.

He said the budget had been prepared on the basis of a technique of the National Municipal Accounts Manual. The technique had been made effective by the Centre and accepted by the Madhya Pradesh Government.

Hinting at a possible review of water tax and wealth tax in future, Mr Sood said the identity of a model town was a healthy environment and availability of basic facilities for its citizens.

He said several big projects had been undertaken for arranging residences for slum dwellers in the state capital under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

A sum of Rs 47.14 crore would be spent upon construction of buildings for slum dwellers in Roshanpura and Banganga, Rs 16 crore for Shyam Nagar, Rs 2.54 crore in Kalpana Nagar and Rs 6.96 crore in Shabri Nagar and Bapu Nagar.

He informed that the Centre had formed five groups of towns and cities under the JNNURM. The state capital was included in Group 'C' along with Patna, Jaipur, Lucknow, Meerut, Jabalpur, Vijaywada, Guwhati, Jammu, Raipur, Ranchi, Thiruvananthapuram, Bhubaneswar and Chandigarh.

He said it was a matter of pride that Bhopal had been chosen as coordinator and the Mayor as the convenor of the group.

The Mayor informed that development programmes would be run at an expenditure of Rs 100 crore for welfare of residents of 14 slums under the joint auspices of the state government and the British Government's International Development Department.

He said a Rs 250 crore estimates for undertaking sewage work in 2007-08 was being sent to both the state government as well as the Centre.

Besides, provision had been made for constructing superior-quality roads, sewer lines, drains and other infrastructure-related projects in old Bhopal and new Bhopal areas.

He added that budget had made provision to deal with the loss due to heavy rains in the state capital last year. Channelisation and fresh construction was being undertaken in big 'nullahs' under the JNNURM.

UNI