BBMP presents Rs 9,287 crore budget for Bengaluru

Bengaluru: Focusing on greater devolution of authority and achieving financial discipline, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Saturday presented its annual Budget for the financial year 2021-22 with an outlay of Rs 9,287.81 crore. This is the first Budget since the enactment of new BBMP Act 2020 for Bengaluru Urban governance.

Thulasi Maddineni, special commissioner (Finance) has described the BBMP budget as historic.

"The new Act provides for greater devolution of authority making it easier for us to take care of the needs and welfare of 1.2 crore people of Bengaluru. The Act provides for constitution of an Area Committee, Ward Committee, Assembly Constituency Consultative Committee and a Zonal Committee. In the true spirit of decentralisation, BBMP has proposed to devolve about Rs 2,000 crore to the zones for disbursement in lieu of various citizen services and works undertaken at the zonal level," the Special Commissioner said.

In the new budget it has been intended to provide a fund of 1% of the collected property tax in order to promote the participation of citizens in property tax collection. On the basis of demand from citizens, each ward committee will be given Rs 20 lakhs for repairing footpaths under, "Footpath for Citizens' initiative.

It has been decided to introduce E-Property Software for all the properties in BBMP limits in the current financial year. A new software has been developed under the framework of 'Ease of Doing Business, which facilitates issuance of building license to domicile authentication certificate. This allows making use of unified software by submitting a single application and ensures that the process is simplified.

The preparatory works are being carried out to cancel the "B" format registration of properties with the cooperation of the revenue department so that the system becomes more transparent and will be complementary to the systematic development.

The aim is to recover rent from buildings of the market and a revenue collection of Rs 38 crore has been expected. Since the proposals of increasing the rents of these buildings are facing legal disputes, it has been decided to frame an intervention plan to enable revision of the rental charges. Public toilets will be maintained as per ODF++ specifications and the budget aims to construct 67 new toilets. An amount of Rs 5,000 will be awarded to every Pourakarmika through direct payment to facilitate the celebration of Dr. B.R.Ambedkar's birth anniversary.

The applications for the social welfare schemes and projects that are going to be announced hereafter will be allowed to submit through Bengaluru One Center and the Website of the BBMP.

It has been proposed to set up an internal review cell which facilitates vigilance on works, procedures being followed and maintenance of documents as it is necessary for a mega institution like BBMP.

The greener environment is very much desirable for the well-being of citizens and there are about 1200 parks under BBMP. Maintenance of all the parks will be done under the supervision of ward committees and this will be given through ward wise tendering process. The names of the contractor concerned and contact numbers who have been awarded maintenance responsibility will be displayed in all the parks.

The BBMP budget proposes to replace all the streetlights in the city under the LED lighting implementation project and 1 lakh of LED street bulbs will be fixed by July 2021 in the first stage.

"The priority is given to the integrated traffic management system and plans have been created to implement the up-gradation of 12 high-density corridors, to extend the metro routes and sub-urban rails. The works which are in progress for a longer period, such as Smart City Roads, White Topping, and tender sure projects will be completed and dedicated for public use," Maddineni said.

"Measures have been taken already to revive 25 lakes with the view to preserving the Greener Bengaluru. A unique iconic 'Citizens waterway project' is underway and execution will start in this financial year. This water way project once fully completed will become a landmark public space on par with the 'Sabarmati Riverfront Project' of Ahmedabad. The funding for this Rs175 crore project is provided by the government. We have provided Rs 60 crore for desiliting and maintenance of SWDs and would be proactively identifying vulnerable areas and take measures for proper draining of rainwater by taking up necessary repairs of the drains leading to the SWDs," the special commissioner added.

'Experience Bengaluru Center's will be set up in the lands belonging to NGEF and Mysuru Lamps keeping in mind to depict the history, culture, and arts of the city and to provide an avenue for youth to have exposure to such facts.