Mayor Afzal Imam at the PMC board meeting on Friday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

The Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) board on Friday gave its nod to the solid waste management projects in the state capital in the run-up to the civic budget.

Mayor Afzal Imam on Friday said the draft of the civic body’s budget for the next fiscal (2013-14) is expected to be finalised in two to three days. “The draft is almost complete. We expect to table the same in a special meeting of the PMC board by March 15,” said Imam. The board also earmarked Rs 4 crore approved under the fourth finance commission for development of roads and street lighting.

“Revising its earlier decision of getting the solid waste management works done by Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation (BUIDCo), the urban development and housing department recently proposed to hand over the work back to PMC. Members of the PMC board on Friday deliberated on the possible ways to make progress in the project and unanimously accepted the proposal,” said Chandra Shekhar Azad, municipal secretary, PMC.

Earlier, the PMC board had given an in-principle approval to the execution of the integrated solid waste management project for Patna under the Centre-sponsored Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission through a special purpose vehicle to be formed by BUIDCo at Rs 110.59 crore on October 1, last year. However, the execution has not commenced till date.

Another important agenda in the meeting was adoption of Tax and Non-tax Recovery Regulations, 2012, but was rejected by the board members. The state cabinet approved the rules in its January 7 meeting and the empowered standing committee of PMC on February 13. The urban development and housing department has instructed all urban local bodies to get the rules approved by their respective boards at the earliest.

The new regulations give punitive powers to the civic bodies to stop providing municipal services, issue attachment of property and realise tax dues by selling the immovable assets of defaulters of municipal taxes.

The fourth agenda of the meeting involved formation of committees in every ward with a population of 1.5 lakh and above, which was also not approved.