In first budget, south body lays stress on education, sanitation

Being the richest of the three new civic bodies, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) will be building its own headquarters in Dwarka.

Being the richest of the three new civic bodies, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) will be building its own headquarters in Dwarka. While the other two corporations had to borrow from the Delhi government to come up with an annual budget, this corporation has a surplus of about Rs 360 crore, a major portion of which will be spent on building the headquarters on the lines of the Civic Centre.

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The SDMC in its first House meeting on Wednesday adopted a budget proposal of Rs 2773 crore for 2012-2013 out of which Rs 2,414 will be the total expenditure. The newly appointed commissioner, Manish Gupta, said part of the surplus money will be spent on development activities. "A portion will be spent on building another Civic Centre," said Gupta.

A major share, almost 24% of the SDMC budget, was allocated to the education sector. Sanitation services received 17% of the total budget and development public work has received a 15% share.

Health, however, received little focus, the explanation being the lack of dispensaries in the corporation.

In terms of area, the SDMC is the biggest corporation among the newly constituted corporations covering 846 sq km and catering to 59 lakh people. An official attributed the

corporation's better finances to the fact that almost 55% of the total property taxes are paid by residents of the area covered by the SDMC. At least 43% of the authorised parking sites are also in its jurisdiction.