BMC BUDGET

expenditure, Chahal said, was to serve the citizens better. “This is a major jump since the last five years where we have reduced expenditure and cut costs, made reforms and brought it to 48% on non-development activities. This is a milestone in the history of BMC where capital expenditure has crossed more than 50 %. I am happy to share that the money is going for welfare of citizens, for betterment of city as compared to non-developmental activities like salaries, establishments and operations,” said Chahal.

The four pillars of development

There were no new taxes proposed in the election year, with the primary focus leaning on four pillars -- education, health, environment and transparency. “There is no increase in property tax till March 2023. We will take a final call by May or June, by when the elected body will be in place and they can decide. The projected hike in property taxes will be 16%,” said Chahal.

The civic budget continued its focus on the coastal road project, the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road and beautification project, curbing air pollution by installing 14 smog towers and five ambient air quality monitors across the city, pedestrian friendly facilities, strengthening peripheral hospitals and doorto-door screenings for non-communicable diseases.

Calling it a gender-sensitive budget supporting women’s empowerment, for the first time more than an eight-fold increase was made for various social impact initiatives with a provision of ₹250 crore from the earlier ₹30 crore. These will include financial schemes for women, women’s training schemes, differently-abled trans-persons and senior citizens.

He said the budget sourced heavily from the 965 suggestions from citizens, based on which the civic body has introduced a Pedestrian First Policy, under which any road, which is more than nine-metre in width, will have footpath on both sides. He added that BMC had identified such roads and construction work will start soon.

Turning his attention on the environment sector, Chahal shared plans to discipline the real estate sector in dust management, stating that it was a major contributor to air pollution. The BMC will issue guidelines to the sector to curb dust pollution in Mumbai and ensure that dust components are mitigated at the sites.

Commenting on the ongoing coastal road project, Chahal said, “Our primary objective is to connect Nariman Point and Marine Drive with Mira Bhayander. In FY 2023-24, work on the Versova-Dahisar extension of the coastal road will be taken up on war footing. Tenders for the Dahisar and Mira-Bhayander stretch were floated last year, and this year a budgetary provision of ₹22 crore was made. The primary objective is to connect Nariman Point and Marine

Drive with Mira Bhayander. The entire coastal road project will be a reality in the next five years with the first phase set to be completed by the end of this year.” ₹3,545 crore has been allocated to the overall coastal road project. ₹1060 crore has been set aside for the Goregaon Mulund Link Road (GMLR).

Better roads

Furthermore, the city will have concretised roads in the next three years. All on-going projects of BMC will have a QR displayed for citizens to scan and access details. Initially, all road concretisation projects will have this displayed, which will later be implemented on all BMC projects. “Approximately 990 km of roads have been concretised in Mumbai till the end of January and we have already issued a work order for concretising 397 km of roads. In the next three years, BMC will concretise 100% of the existing roads in Mumbai,” said Chahal.

A budgetary provision of ₹3630.71 crore has been made to improve roads and traffic, of which ₹2825.06 crore will be utilised to improve the thoroughfares. A total provision of ₹2100 crore was made for repair and reconstruction of at least 39 bridges.

The BMC will construct seven sewage treatment plants (STP) at Dharavi, Malad, Versova, Ghatkopar, Bhandup and Bandra at ₹2792 crore. For the provision of storm water drains, which includes widening and draining of Mithi River and other nullahs, a provision of ₹2570.65 crore has been made.

Beautification drive

The BMC will continue with its ₹1729 crore beautification plan for 24 wards this year too post March 2023, not inclusive of the beautification of Gateway of India.

It has allocated ₹227.07 crore to the Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB), which is approximately 30% less than what was allotted last year. This year, the MFB aims to purchase firefighting drones along with 22 quick response vehicles and a disaster recovery deployment kit as well.

A total provision of ₹6309.38 crore was made for the health budget – 12 per cent of the entire budget size. The civic body has made a provision of ₹1125 crore under Ahsray Yojana for 10351 tenements of 300 sqft carpet area and 832 tenements of 600 sqft carpet area, which are being constructed for civic employees.

Primary education has ₹3347.13 crore. Under the new National Education Policy-2020, students from selected BMC schools will be given skill development training in their field of interest. Selected secondary schools of BMC will have the following courses from June 2023: electronics, hotel management, apparel, fashion designing, food service, health and hygiene, automobile, tourism and hospitality. A budgetary allocation of ₹28.45 crore has been made for the same.

The BMC will also adopt ecologically sustainable planting practices, along Mithi, Mahakali caves, Swami Vivekananda Udyan and Bharat Van Udyan in Marol, where one lakh trees will be planted. This is an urban greening project as part of measures to tackle pollution.

CHINESE BALLOON

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive operation, said it was unclear whether a final decision had yet been made by President Joe Biden.

In brief remarks on Saturday, President Joe Biden said the United States is “going to take care of” the balloon.

Biden made his remark in response to a question about whether the United States would shoot down the high-altitude surveillance balloon, which has been flying across the country in what Washington calls a “clear violation” of US sovereignty.

Moments before Blinken’s decision to cancel his trip — aimed at easing tensions between the two countries — China issued a rare statement of regret on Friday over the first balloon and blamed winds for pushing what it called a civilian airship into US airspace.

But the Biden administration described it as a maneuverable “surveillance balloon”.

In a telephone call with senior Chinese official Wang Yi, Blinken said he “made clear that the presence of this surveillance balloon in US airspace is a clear violation of US sovereignty and international law, that it’s an irresponsible act.” Blinken said, however, that he told Wang “the United States is committed to diplomatic engagement with China and that I plan to visit Beijing when conditions allow.” “The first step is getting the surveillance asset out of our airspace. That’s what we’re focused on,” Blinken told reporters. According to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, Wang said the two discussed the incident “in a calm and professional manner.” “China is a responsible country and has always strictly abided by international law,” Xinhua quoted Wang as telling Blinken. On Saturday, the Chinese foreign ministry released a statement addressing Blinken’s announcement that his trip would not go ahead. Blinken would have been the first top US diplomat to visit China since October 2018, signaling a thaw following intense friction under Donald Trump.

Basti area, a patch of settlement on a mountainside within the larger Doda town.

Mohammad Akram, 40, said the cracks first appeared in some six to seven houses in December. “We took them lightly because in hilly areas like these mild quakes and water also cause minor cracks in the houses. We applied white cement to cover them, but last week they started widening and spread to more houses,” he said.

For some who have remained in their homes, the question on what to do next is a tough one.

“We are very much scared to stay here. We cannot even sit inside our home because the entire area has developed cracks. We seek an appropriate place to stay and provide protection to the children,” said an unnamed resident, according to news agency ANI.

Akram, who was among the families evacuated, said: “I request the government to give us 5 marla plot and compensation to construct our houses and rebuild our lives,” he added.

The administration in the Union territory has not announced any compensation for the affected resident.

Lt Governor Manoj Sinha on Saturday said the Jammu and Kashmir administration was keeping a close watch but denied the situation was akin to the crisis in Joshimath. “The best possible assistance will be extended to the affected families,” Sinha told reporters at Raj Bhawan.

affected. Yes, FPOs (follow-on public offers) come in, and FIIs (foreign institutional investors) get out,” Sitharaman told reporters in Mumbai, according to PTI.

The reference to the FPO related to Adani’s decision to pull its additional stake sale after its shares were hammered following Hindenburg Research’s report, which the Gujarat-based company has denied.

The minister said “fluctuations” exist in every market but the accretion over the last few days demonstrated the fact that the perception of both India and its inherent strengths was intact.

Answering a broader question on the allegations against the Adani Group, she said the country’s independent financial sector regulators will be looking into the aspect and added that capital markets watchdog Securities and Exchange Board of India has the wherewithal to ensure stability.

“...for keeping the market and the markets regulated in prime condition, the Sebi is the authority. And it has the wherewithal to keep that prime condition,” she said.

The finance minister also said that the Reserve Bank of India has already spoken out on the issue, referring to Friday’s statement by the central bank, which said India’s banking sector was resilient and stable.

Adani Group’s woes have led to questions over what it means for banks that have lent to it or investors who hold equity.

CRACKS IN DODA

ADANI ISSUE

01.Anish Kapoor 02.Marie Kondo 03.Hindenburg 04.Mumbai 05.British Honours 06.Martina Hingis 07.Briefcase 08.Dangal 09.Shafali Verma 10.Kalpana Chawla

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