With eye on elections,MCD revises budget to woo women voters

The Committee also formed a reserve fund of Rs 10 crore for MCD girl students passing out of senior secondary school. “The MCD would transfer Rs 5,000 as a fixed deposit amount to the bank accounts of girls passing out of Class XII,” said Chandolia.

The Committee has decided to allott Rs 2.1 crore for maintaining women toilets in public places. “The Commissioner proposed Rs 10 lakh for toilet maintenance,which has been increased by Rs 2 crore,” he said.

The Standing Committee also allocated budget for a heritage cell which would be given funds for preserving heritage buildings in the city.

Fund for village development

Eyeing the upcoming polls,the second head that received a majority of funds was village development — rural,urban and approved — followed by unauthorised colonies. For development of rural areas,the Commissioner had approved Rs 10 crore,which has now been increased to Rs 50 crore by the Committee. For maintenance of rural roads,the Commissioner allocated Rs 7 crore and the Standing Committee hiked it by Rs 3 crore.

Fund for unauthorised colonies

Targeting the votes in unauthorised colonies,the committee made a special provision for providing civic amenities in unauthorised colonies. “We increased the budget for this by Rs 49.9 crore. Under the DMC Act,the Commissioner can use his powers to make budget allocation for repair works in the unauthorised colonies and we asked him to approve the work under this head,” said Chandolia.

Fund for healthcare,hospitals

The city hospitals were mostly neglected in the budget. For repair and maintenance of hospitals,the Commissioner approved Rs 25 lakh and the Committee increased this by Rs 5 lakh. If a Medical Superintendent makes a special request for funds to carry out repair works in the hospital,it will be allocated from a Rs 70-lakh corpus set aside for the purpose in the 2012-2013 budget estimate. The other health service,which received a boost was medicines and instruments purchasing. The budget allocated for this was hiked by Rs 50 lakh.

Standing Committee Chairman,Mayor funds

The MCD Standing Committee did not forget to increase its discretionary funds of the Standing Committee Chairman and Mayor. Both funds have been increased by Rs 4 crore and now stands at Rs 10 crore.

No new taxes

Taxes like conservancy charges,congestion tax and increase in property tax was not approved by the Committee. “The residents are already reeling under the taxes imposed on them by the Delhi and Central government. We cannot impose any more taxes on them,” said Chandolia.

Commissioner K S Mehra said since the Standing Committee has amended the budget estimates proposed by him,the officials will have to rework the budget once it is passed by the House.