BMC to reduce funds to standing committee by Rs60 crore
After slashing the annual budget of the country’s richest civic body — Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) — the civic administration is likely to reduce the amount that is allotted to the standing committee, a source said.
Unlike last year, the administration is likely to reduce the amount from last year’s Rs400 crore to Rs341 crore this year, the source said. Every year, the standing committee has powers to revise certain funds stated in the budget. From that amount, Rs1 crore is given to 232 corporators (including 5 standing committee corporators) and the remaining amount is distributed among various political parties in the civic body. These funds are used for various civil works such as minor drain repairs, minor footpath repairs, water pipeline repairs in slum areas among many other works that are carried out locally.
This year, it will be interesting to see which party will be allotted with a bigger share, as Shiv Sena and BJP have over 84 and 82 corporators respectively. A civic official said, “The standing committee members are yet to decide on the share of amount each party will be allotted and what will be the share will entirely be the committee’s call. The informal discussions among the committee members is likely to end within this week.”
A senior civic official, said, “The entire fund of Rs400 crore was not utilised by the corporators or by the parties, last year only Rs351 crore was spent in comparison to Rs400 crore that were allotted as an amendment to the budget. But if this year, there is any shortfall of funds faced by corporators we will allot the additional funds by February 2018.”