Vijayawada Municipal Corporation passes Rs 12.81 crore surplus civic budget

Vijayawada: The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation on Monday adopted a Rs 12.81-crore surplus budget, at Rs 1,614. 66 crore, presented by the Standing Committee for 2016-17 fiscal.

This is Rs 837.66 crore more than the revised budget of 2015-16 and the surplus is mainly due to the Rs 350 crore Pushkaram funds sanctioned by the state government.

Following demand by the council members, minor amendments have been made to the original proposals by the Committee chairperson and Corporation Mayor Koneru Sreedhar.

While the total income this fiscal has been pegged at Rs 1,614. 66 crore, that of last year was at Rs 777. 49 crore. The total expenditure estimated this fiscal is Rs 1,601.85 crore against Rs 760.46 crore incurred last year.

The opening balance is Rs 17.02 crore taking the total budget to Rs 1,631. 67 for 2016-17. However, the capital budget has a deficit of Rs 64 crore.

Presenting the budget, Mr Sreedhar said that with an aim to earn special recognition to the capital city, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation has allocated a major portion of the budget for the overall development of the city and to provide basic amenities.

“The budget has been so designed that 40 per cent of the income would be spent to develop slums in the city, 15 per cent for the welfare of SCs, 7. 5 per cent for STs and 5 per cent on on women and child welfare,” said commissioner G. Veerapandian.

Further, Mr Veerapandian said there are plans to regulate street vendors, provide walkways, improve e-governance. The chairman promised allocation of funds for maintenance of toilets in municipal school, for which no funds were allocated earlier.

Allocation of funds for storm water drain projects, water supply, Swachh Bharat scheme, AMRUT, employment skill programme, metro rail shifting, solar city project has also been increased.

“The budget has been approved in the council meet and would be forwarded to the state government,” Mr Sreedhar said.

Meagre allocation for sports facilities
While the chief minister continues to make statements on developing smart cities with modern facilities in all the sectors in the State, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation, which governs an important city adjacent to the proposed Capital city of Amaravati, has given least preference to develop sports facilities.

The draft budget for 2016-17 presented in the municipal council by the chairperson and Mayor Koneru Sreedhar revealed that the Corporation would spend only Rs 38. 50 lakh on the sports wing, including salaries, maintenance of stadia, purchasing new equipment and others, while the income through the sports infrastructure is expected to be Rs 71 lakh.

An income of Rs 27 lakh is expected from the VMC swimming pools in the city but only Rs 1 lakh has been allocated towards their maintenance in the draft budget introduced.

This is despite the fact that a student, Manish Kumar, drowned in the poorly maintained Sir Vizzi Vijayawada Municipal Corporation Swimming Pool in April last year. YSRC floor leader in the Council Bandi Punyaseela demanded allocation of more funds for sports facilities.

A meagre Rs 1 lakh has been allotted for the development of DRM Indoor Stadium, skating ring, air conditioning and electricity expenses.

Mayor loses cool
City Mayor and municipal council chairperson Mr Koneru Sreedhar on Monday lost his cool when members of the Opposition parties raised objections to some proposals presented in the draft Budget.

Mr Sreedhar, who was calm for nearly an hour even when YSRC floor leader B. Punyaseela raised over 70 questions on the Budget allocations, lost his cool when corporator Gade Adilakshmi raised some questions about the allocation of funds by the Centre and State to the Corporation, during her speech.

Mr Sreedhar tried to object her by saying that she was deviating from the topic.
“I don’t want your opinion. How are we related to the Centre and State here," he questioned.

Immediately, MLC P.J. Chandrasekhar Rao tried to tell the Mayor that the corporator was only trying to remind the members about some funds from the Centre and State but Mr Sreedhar kept on saying “speak on budget” for nearly 100 times, throughout the argument.

The TD corporators, who blindly came in support of the Mayor, termed the argument by the Opposition members and the MLC as mere trash. Soon the members of the Opposition parties demanded that the Mayor should not consider their words as 'mere trash'.