BJP corporators oppose, independents give support
Raipur, March 29, 2010
Mayor Kiranmayi Nayak on Monday presented Rs 880.32 crore municipal budget during the general body meeting that held at RMC’s Ravishankar Shukla hall. Besides budget, the corporators had to discuss on 80 other agendas, but at 8.30 pm, the Speaker Sanjay Shrivastava adjourned the proceedings till 11 am on Tuesday after taking consent of both the ruling party and Opposition.
While presenting the budget, Nayak said the RMC’s total income in 2010-11 was expected to be about 879.82 crore while the expenditure would be about 880.32 crore owing to which the budget loss would be Rs 48.20 lakh. She said the outstanding amount against the municipal was over Rs 35 crore when she became mayor some three months back. “At that time, we decided to restructure our internal system by curtailing unnecessary expenditures and hence, we succeeded in preparing people-oriented budget,” she said.
Raipur still lacks capital-look
“Although Raipur is a state capital, but still we have failed to develop it in an organised city. For this, we will have to do ample work at ground level and this is possible only when both ruling party and Opposition will coordinate with each other,” she said.
Wide, clean roads
Nayak said the RMC was committed to provide wide and clean road to the people for which she said efforts had been started but in planned manner. “We are not widening roads by launching overnight demolition works, but instead we are removing all types of encroachments,” she said.
New auditorium, developed gardens for people
Considering the need of an entertainment centre in the city, the RMC will construct a fully-facilitated auditorium, she informed. “The municipal will also begin beautification works in the gardens and solar lights will be installed to conserve traditional source of energy,” she added. The RMC has also reserved Guru Teg Bahadur Udyan exclusively for women, she said.
New vast ground like Delhi’s Pragati Maidan
The municipal also plans to prepare vast ground like New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan in the city for which a proposal will be sent to the state government for approval, Nayak said. Besides entertainment, the ground will also reflect the state’s folk- art and culture, she added.
Sanitation drive
“In the past three months, we have attempted to create awareness about sanitation across the capital and have attempted to link common mass with our sanitation campaigns. To minimise sanitation-related complaints, we have also decided to give sanitation works on contractual basis at ward-level. This will ensure effective implementation of sanitation works in every ward and the local corporator and residents will have complete control over the process,” she said.
Drinking water
“To solve the drinking water problem in the summer, our water tankers will be available round the clock. To maintain transparency in water distribution system through tankers, we will paint them in different colours so that people could easily identify that the tanker with specific colour belongs to their zone. We have made a provision of Rs 27.50 lakh to construct water tanks and to deal the problem of water crisis,” she said. To prevent misuse of water, the RMC will install water meters under Water Augmentation Scheme (WAS) in the houses and commercial establishments that have taken municipal tap connections.
Hostels for working women, girls
The RMC will construct hostels for working women and girls who come from other districts in the city pertaining to their job or studies. Similarly, the municipal will make the women belonging to the weaker section self-reliant by imparting them training in embroidery.
RMC adopts modern techniques
Nayak informed that the municipal plans to start e-governance to modernise and simplify its working system. Besides, the RMC will commence SMS facility, toll free phone numbers and online complaint registration system to promptly redress people’s problems. The municipal has also launched e-payment system through banks that enables people to pay their property taxes quickly. The RMC further aims to take attendance of its employees and regularly monitor their works through biometric system.
Raipur Diwas
RMC is planning to celebrate a particular day as Raipur Diwas and to take out Raipur carnival on that day. “We are making proposal for these plans, but we need nod from the people belonging to all the religions,” she said.
Highlights of RMC budget 2010-11
No property tax on houses constructed up to 600 sq ft area
Rs 325 crore will be spent in construction of 27,000 fully-facilitated houses for poor under Basic Services for the Urban Poor Scheme (BSUP)
New rest house will be constructed at Filter Plant
New hoarding policy will come into effect from April 1, 2010
Rs 50 lakh has been initially approved for construction of an auditorium and more funds will be sanctioned in coming years according to requirement
New work-plan to create awareness among people about environment
To promote paper bags and to prohibit use of polythene bags
Provision of Rs one crore for proposed Appu Ghar in Motibagh
Provision of Rs 9 crore for new RMC building
Rs 3 crore for proposed Gokul Nagar scheme
Provision of Rs 2 crore each for Sarovar Dharovar Yojana and Pushpvatika Yojana
Rs 2 crore will be spent in developing open sports ground
Provision of Rs 8 crore for indoor stadium, Rs one crore for outdoor stadium and Rs 3 crore to develop outer portion of stadium premises
RMC will open two new fire stations and will purchase modern fire fighting vehicles and equipments
Provision of 6.68 crore to buy 100 new city buses for capital under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM)
Provision of Rs 10 crore under urban development scheme, road widening projects and Vision 2010
Beautification of road intersections will be done at the cost of Rs 2 crore
Rs 7 crore will be spent in nullah construction
Rs 12.50 crore to develop wholesale vegetable markets
Rs 12 crore for road widening and other works from Shastri Chowk to Telebandha under Gaurav Path scheme
Rs 50 lakh for Inter State Bus Terminal (ISBT)
To open new zones besides existing eight zones
Guru Teg Bahadur Udyan will be reserved for women
RMC will organise camps to regularise illegal houses and tap connections
Sterilisation of dogs and plan to open RMC Gaushala for cattle
Rs one crore to open meditation centre where experts will impart training to the people
Rs 1200 crore will be spent in distributing salary to about 2700 RMC employees according to VIth pay-scale
The municipal staff will get medical compensation allowance if they or the family members dependent on them would take treatment in RMC listed hospitals. The staff will also get benefit of health insurance
Rs 17 crore to construct housing colony for municipal staff
Department-wise budget allocation
1) Finance, Accounts and Auditing – Rs 33.36 crore
2) General Administration and Legal works – Rs 12.64 crore
3) Town Planning and Building Permission – Rs 48.55 crore
4) Public Works - Rs 71.12 crore
5) Water Works - Rs 77.67 crore
6) Revenue – Rs 3.68 crore
7) Food, Public Health and Sanitation – Rs 37.55 crore
8) Fire, Electricity and Engineering – Rs 33.27 crore
9) Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare – Rs 24.63 lakh
10) Women and Child Development – Rs 23.73 lakh
11) SC/ST Welfare – Rs 51.84 lakh
12) Education, Sports and Youth Welfare – Rs 6.48 crore
13) Environment and Horticulture – Rs 7.67 crore
14) Tourism, Culture, Entertainment and Heritage Protection – Rs 1.35 crore
Vishwakarma, Mrityunjay tear budget copies
Mayor apologises
Raipur, March 29, 2010
The copies of RMC budget 2010-11 were distributed to the corporators before Mayor Kiranmayi Nayak’s budget speech during municipal general body meeting on Monday. When BJP Corporator Prafulla Vishwakarma questioned from the ruling party whether the budget was leaked before presentation or was intentionally distributed, the senior Congress corporators held the officials responsible for such hurried distribution. However, refusing to blame anybody on this issue, Nayak apologised by saying that although it was not the fault of her party, but she would not hesitate in taking the responsibility of the mistake.
Stating that the budget copy had no value before formal budget presentation by the mayor, Vishwakarma tore the copy. The opposition demanded apology from mayor in this regard. Meanwhile, independent corporator Mrityunjay Dubey also tore the copy pointing that its front page still contained the mono of Madhya Pradesh.
Terming Vishwakarma and Mrityunjay actions unparliamentary, the Congress corporators including Pramod Dubey and Gyanesh Sharma demanded from the duo to apologise. The ruling party also demanded from the Speaker stern to action against the guilty official who had distributed the budget copies.
Budget lacks soul: Tiwari
Raipur, March 29, 2010
RMC’s corporators’ leader Subhash Tiwari said that the municipal budget lacked soul and had not been prepared considering people’s basic requirements. He said the ruling party not only broke the tradition of taking advise of the corporators before preparing budget, but it also ignored the senior corporators from the Opposition who could have given some significant tips pertaining to the benefit of the people.
He said the budget had no provision for the poor and needy. “About 4000-5000 applications regarding pensions of widows and elderly people are pending in the RMC but the ruling party is apathetic towards this important issue,” he said. He also sough detailed information about the proposed sanitation policy terming it vague.
Independent corporator Mrityunjay Dubey demanded that the corporators should also get Rs five lakh per month as development fund pointing that even the MLAs and MPs get fund for the development of their respective constituencies. He further pointed out that if the RMC would repair all the leaking water pipelines, about several lakh gallons of water would be saved.
Raising the issue of parking space, Dubey said the RMC should take stern action against those commercial establishments where parking lots are not provided. He indictaed that the Ravi Bhawan was one such major building that although had provision of parking in its basement but the space was being used for commercial purpose.
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