BBMP’s Rs 11,972 crore budget gets government nod in just 3 days
BJP-held assembly constituencies get major chunk of development grants
BENGALURU:
In a sign of how a pandemic can change the entrenched dilatory ways of ‘babudom’, the state government has, in a matter of days, given its nod to the BBMP’s Rs 11,972 crore budget proposals.
The approval was officially signed by the urban development department on Wednesday, May 13. The budget proposal had been sent on May 7 and reached Vikas Soudha on May 8. May 9 was a second Saturday followed by May 10, a Sunday. Thus, the civic budget got the seal of approval from the government in just three working days. That too, without seeking any clarifications from the civic agency.
Interestingly, BBMP had presented a Rs 10,899.23 crore budget but Mayor M Gautam Kumar and other elected representatives pitched for an increased amount of Rs 11,972 crore, which too was accepted by the state government.
As per the budget copy with theBengalurulive, a major chunk of the expenditure is in BJP-held assembly constituencies where each of the MLAs has been granted Rs 20 crore to take up development activities of his choice. These constituencies are: Malleswaram, Mahalakshmi Layout, CV Raman Nagar, Rajajinagar, Govindaraj Nagar, Chickpet, Basavanagudi and Padmanabhanagar.
Other assembly constituencies represented by BJP MLAs — Yelahanka, KR Puram, Yeshwantpur, Mahadevpura, Bommanahalli, Bangalore South and Rajarajeshwari Nagar (the constituency doesn’t have a sitting MLA) — have been sanctioned Rs 25 crore each.
This apart, all BJP-held assembly constituencies and the sole Congress-held BTM Layout have been given an additional Rs 3.3 crore each.
Interestingly, for the first time, state finance commission grants which are utilised to pay the salaries of pourakarmikas will also be used to pay the salaries of outsourced labour working in BBMP.
Assembly constituencies represented by Congress MLAs have been accorded Rs 10 crore each. These constituencies are: Byatarayanapura, Hebbal, Sarvagnya Nagar, Shivaji Nagar, Gandhinagar, Pulikeshi Nagar, Shanti Nagar, Vijayanagar, Chamarajpet, BTM Layout, Jayanagar. Also granted Rs 10 crore is Dasarahalli, which is represented by a JDS MLA.
Also Read: BBMP’s full budget presented on April 20, 2020 https://thebengalurulive.com/bbmp-budget-2020-21-live-2/
Click here for entire budget speech copy https://thebengalurulive.com/up/2020-21-Final-Budget-speech-18-4-2020%20.pdf
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