The Patna Municipal Corporation's empowered standing committee passed a surplus revenue budget of Rs 225 crore for the 2017-18 fiscal at a special meeting on Saturday.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of mayor Afzal Imam.
While receipts in the budget for the upcoming fiscal have been estimated at Rs 833.41 crore, the expected expenditure is Rs 608.74 crore. "Receipts, of around Rs 286 crore, have been carried forward from the previous fiscal and helped in making the budget surplus," said mayor Imam.
Sources in PMC also confirmed that had the receipts not been forwarded from the previous budget, the 2017-18 fiscal annual budget would have been a deficit budget. One of the interesting provisions of PMC's 2017-18 fiscal budget is that ward councillors may recommend various projects worth around Rs 1.1 crore for development of their wards.
Rs 20 lakh has been kept for the training and study tour of ward councillors and another Rs 7 crore has been set aside for construction of seven welcome gates at seven entry points of Patna.
Residents gave thumbs up to the PMC's plans under the new budget.
Anjali Priya (23), preparing for competitive exams, said: "PMC's decision to spend on installation of streetlights in Patna is commendable. I stay in a private hostel on Boring Road. I fear venturing out early in the morning for walks because of low visibility on roads. There are many streets which do not have streetlights and need attention."
Umashankar Prasad (62), a retired bank employee staying in Patliputra, however, criticised PMC's move of spending Rs 20 lakh on the study tour of ward councillors. "The money could have been spent in providing other amenities to residents," he said.
The budget was though unanimously approved later in the meeting.
Ward councillor Vinay Kumar Pappu among others had raised the point as to why the budget-related documents were not shown to the councillors prior to its presentation. Both PMC mayor Imam and commissioner Abhishek Singh echoed that the budget-related documents were not supposed to be shown to the ward councillors prior its presentation according to the municipality act.
"Those documents are not even shown to Members of Parliament (MPs) before being tabled in Rajya Sabha," summed up commissioner Singh.
Amenities
PMC will spend Rs 13.5 crore on the development of parks and playgrounds according to the budget, while Rs 13 crore would be spent to build a marketing complex. Streetlights will be installed at Rs 30.75 crore and Rs 50 lakh will be spent to sterilise stray dogs.
"PMC has formed a team of experts, including veterinarians, to carry out the drive. Two catchvans will also be provided," said Imam. He added that Rs 20 lakh would be spent on distribution of tricycles among differently abled, while Rs 8 crore would be spent on construction of public toilets in slum areas.
While Rs 15 crore has been earmarked for door-to-door garbage collection, Rs 30 crore has been fixed for construction and maintenance of roads, Rs 33 crore for construction and maintenance of drains and Rs 5 crore to conduct various activities under the cleanliness programme.
