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Monday Musings: Without political interference, PMC chief has ideal chance to present balanced budget
As the PMC is governed by the administrator, the current situation augurs well for the civic chief Vikram Kumar to present a budget that is without political interference
With the Kasba Peth bypolls over, the civic administration is now busy preparing the annual budget which the municipal commissioner will present, hopefully, by this month. As the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is governed by the administrator, the current situation augurs well for the civic chief Vikram Kumar to present a budget that is without political interference.
Last year, the civic budget of ₹8,592 crore for the fiscal 2022-23 was approved on March 7, 2022. The budget amount was increased by ₹942 crore as compared to the previous budget of ₹7,650 crore (for 2021-22). According to PMC officials, the budget may cross ₹9,000 crore for the next financial year as the civic body’s revenue has also increased.
The decision on how and where to spend ₹9,000 crore is crucial this year as it will be mostly decided by the municipal commissioner. The amount, spent wisely, can improve the overall living conditions in the city that is grappling with problems such as dug up roads, heavy traffic congestion, inadequate water supply in many parts, deteriorating air quality…and so on. At the same time, if the money is not spent prudently, it can create new problems.
For the past many years, be it during the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rule in PMC or when the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress were controlling the civic body, it was a regular practice that the person chairing the standing committee will allocate maximum funds in his or her ward. So, when Hemant Rasane was PMC’s standing committee chief for four years, he ensured allocation of around ₹500 crore for various developmental work. It was a different matter how and whether the entire amount was spent and why ward number 15 (Shaniwar Peth – Sadashiv Peth) residents did not vote him in numbers the way they did to his rival candidate Ravindra Dhangekar, who eventually won the assembly bypoll.
Before that too, when Yogesh Mulik was standing committee chief, the budget he presented had focus more on transport-related projects, with a clear emphasis on Ahmednagar Road, Vadgaonsheri, the ward he represented. Same had been the case when representatives of the NCP and the Congress headed the standing committee, tasked with fund allocation of civic body.
Often in the past, elected members representing different political parties have alleged that the civic budget has failed to maintain the balance in allotting funds. The lopsided allocation of funds – distributing large sums to area represented by those in key positions, and not giving much to opposition party members – lacks balance in the budget, and at the same time poses question mark about projects proposed in the respective areas.
If the projects instituted in the budget are not implemented properly, the budget remains impractical and unrealistic.
The same has happened in the case of Smart City works. PMC while implementing Smart City work to only selected areas was seen as injustice to other parts when residents across the city are paying taxes.
Quite often there has been colossal wastage and indiscriminate spending of civic funds. This is apart from the taxpayers’ revenue lost to corruption and rigging of tenders in the civic corridors.
The PMC commissioner can utilise his powers and plan a budget that can allocate funds to each area and avoid wastage of money. Afterall, it is going to impact around 5 million residents of the city.
