Thiruvananthapuram corporation presents surplus budget

Thiruvananthapuram: The city corporation council plans to put together a project to stop the disposal of toilet effluents into canals and other water bodies. This was stated by Mayor V.K.  Prasanth in his opening address before the presentation of the budget on Tuesday. He said that a comprehensive sewage project making use of Amrut project, Swachh  Bharat project and various other schemes devised by the state would be implemented.

Deputy Mayor Rakhi Ravikumar presented the plan outlay for the 2016-2017 fiscal with a surplus of Rs 438.74 crore, compared to the Rs 392-crore surplus in the revised estimate of 2015-2016. The council expects an increase in revenue from  building tax with the fresh tax assessment for new buildings.

The financial statement for 2016-2017 estimates a revenue of Rs 1,281.59 crore and expenditure of Rs 842.85 crore.  The revised budget for 2015-2016 has shown a revenue of Rs 1,078.21 crore and an expenditure of Rs 686.20 crore.
The Mayor  said that 90 wards in the corporation had  submitted beneficiary lists for Pradhan Mantri Awaz Yojna (PMAY). Of these, the lists from 38 wards were being verified now. The beneficiaries will get Rs 1.5 lakh  for houses which are below 60 square metres. The centre, state and the council will provide Rs 50,000 each.

The number of ongoing projects  is around 1,800. Programmes worth Rs 250 crore formulated by the state government are being implemented. He said that the council had conceived 27 projects for constructing roads and drainages under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut Mission). Work on the septage treatment facility at the 107-mld sewage treatment plant at Muttathara was progressing. He said that 51, 189 persons had  received social security pensions, of which 20,586 were old age pensions and 21,475 widow pensions.