"Income generation" is KDMC budget’s mantra

The KDMC will also undertake megacity projects with a Rs 34.96 crore loan from the MMRDA. Of this, Rs 23.21 crore are to be set aside for public works, Rs 3 crore to drainage and sewerage treatment plants and Rs 8.75 for water supply. Rs 30.80 crore is expected to be spent on establishment and administration. Rs 2 crore is to be repaid to the Central Railway for development of the road overbridge. A total of Rs 70 lakh has been keptaside for the modernisation and computerisation of services like octroi, property tax, budgeting, water-billing and provision of birth and death certificates, Rs 27 lakh for health facilities, including the purchase of equipment for the expansion of the civic Rukminibai Hospital. Funds have also been earmarked for a sports complex, drama theatre, truck terminus, beautification of Kala Talav and traffic management facilities outside Dombivli station.

Kokate told Express Newsline that Rs 76 crore was expected from octroi collection. "We had proposed to collect Rs 84 crore last year," he said, "but we fell short by Rs 6.72 crore." The Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Transport committee also presented its Rs 10.90 crore budget. Committee chairperson Deepak Thakur took refuge behind "technical problems and the model code of conduct" to explain why the KDMT could not get its much-hyped city bus services off ground.

The KDMT, which has been announcing dates for the starting of its services from May 1 last year,has lost up to Rs 1.50 crore in its expected income. Thakur said the KDMT plans to acquire 30 more buses, augmenting its fleet to 55 buses. A depot at Dombivli is also on the cards. But apart from "soon", Thakur could not give a specific date for the starting of the bus service.

"Civic body ignoring dues"

The Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation, which is seemingly scraping the bottom of the barrel for more income, may be looking the other way in cases where it is actually owed money. Shiv Sena corporator Vaman Mhatre has alleged that about 127 industrial units in the area are still paying property tax at rates which the KDMC charged when it was a gram panchayat.

In an affidavit, Sena corporator Vaman Mhatre has alleged that the KDMC could get Rs 10 crore if it pursues these cases. There were also instances of defaulters who had failed to renew licences or pay octroi. "I will soon release another list of industrial unit owners and builders who are involved in defrauding the KDMC," claimedMhatre, adding, though, that he did not know the names of the firm owners.