The city crumbling under a legacy of streets littered with garbage, waterlogging menace every monsoon and lack of basic civic amenities, including streetlights, urinals and drinking water, is set to get its 2015-16 municipal budget.

The budget is coming at a time when Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) is trying to come out of the environment of uncertainty faced by it over the past few months, especially following the removal of IAS officer Kuldip Narayan from the post of municipal commissioner in December last year.

Besides, issues like funds crunch, red tape and a rift between the elected representatives and the executive officers have severely degraded the quality of discharge of civic services to the residents in the recent past.

Even mayor Afzal Imam accepted that implementation of the budget provisions has become a challenge. 'We have decided that all elected representatives as well as the executives in the PMC would take a vow in Monday's meet to ensure timely implementation of the upcoming municipal budget,' he said.

The municipal budget for the 2015-16 fiscal would be tabled in a special meeting of PMC board slated for Monday for final approval. The PMC's empowered standing committee already gave its nod to the budget in its meeting on March 20. The budget estimates a surplus of Rs 21 crore.

The estimated revenue in the coming fiscal has been pegged at Rs 465 crore, whereas the expected expenditure has been pegged at Rs 444 crore. This is the second consecutive year when the civic body has come up with a surplus budget, after deficit budgets over the previous six years. The surplus of Rs 21 crore in the upcoming budget is quite high compared to the meagre surplus of Rs 60,014 pegged in the budget for the ongoing fiscal.

On the other hand, allocation of Rs 21.13 crore was made in the budget for the ongoing fiscal (2014-15) for drainage but the northern parts of the city still faced severe waterlogging situation for over a week in August last year. At least Rs 35.75 crore had been set aside for operation and maintenance of water supply but damaged pipelines and contaminated water has been commonly reported in the city.

Similarly, allocation of Rs 5 crore for augmenting the traffic system was made in the previous year's budget but not a single rupee has been spent under the respective head till date.

Funds to the tune of Rs 45 lakh were kept aside for providing amenities for women but no such facilities can be seen in the city till date. Funds to the tune of Rs 28 crore for the waste management project have been carried forward to the upcoming budget as well.

WHAT THEY FEEL

The municipal budget for the 2015-16 fiscal would be tabled in a special meeting of Patna Municipal Corporation board slated for Monday for final approval. On the eve of the budget meeting, Piyush Kumar Tripathi talks to a few residents to know what they expect from the civic budget