₹630 CRORE SPENT ON COVID, BMC MAY HAVE TO REWORK BUDGET

MUMBAI: After spending more than ₹630 crore on its fight against the Covid-19 outbreak, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) might have to rework on its 2020-21 budgetary allocations to meet any more expenses which are likely to incur while combating the virus spread. The BMC might also have to thus divert funds allocated for certain projects in the budget.

Currently, the country’s richest civic body is utilising money from the ₹850-crore contingency fund created for ‘unexpected expenditure’.

“As of now, we have around ₹220 crore of contingency funds left. A majority of the money was utilised for the creation of health facilities. If the need arises, we will start with the internal process soon,” additional municipal commissioner P Velrasu said when asked if funds would be diverted from projects.

As per the civic body, in the past two months, the expenditure shot up drastically owing to the rising cases. Till April, the BMC spent around ₹100 crore, which surged to around ₹480 crore by the first week of June. By the first week of July, it further surged to a total of ₹630.

Apart from the health infrastructure, the BMC spent on hotel accommodation of frontline staff, recruitment of new staff, food distribution, procuring protective gears, hydroxychloroquine, thermometers, sanitisers etc.

Meanwhile, Congress corporator and leader of Opposition in the BMC, Ravi Raja, said, “BMC has not informed the corporators about the expenses. The information should be made available to elected representatives.”

The BMC presented a budget of ₹33,441.02 crore in February, of which ₹2 crore was allocated to upgrade the medical facilities at Kasturba Hospital. At the time, there was no Covid-19 outbreak, and the capital expenditure was pegged at ₹14,637 crore for financial year 2020-2021. The major allocation (₹1,600 crore) was for the roads department, followed by the bridges department (₹799 crore). The other big allocations were for development plan 2034 (₹3,248 crore), health (₹4,260 crore) and education (₹2,944 crore). For the coastal road project, an allocation of around ₹2,000 crore was made, while for the Goregaon-mulund Link Road, ₹300 crore was allocated.