The Hindu : 'The only money spent on time is for salary'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 19, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

'The only money spent on time is for salary'

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore April 18. With only 12 days left for the first campaign by Janaagraha for participative ward-level budgeting in the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike to end, N.L.Narendra Babu, Chairman of the civic body's Standing Committe of Taxation and Finance, was interviewed by six taxpayers from different wards on Thursday. The common refrain was how much of the BMP budget would go for development works.

When Mr. Babu was asked whether the BMP budget of Rs.930 crore for the current fiscal year would go towards development works, he replied: "This is not possible because we have to take care of other expenditure such as salaries, interest on loans, repayment of loans and garbage clearance.''

He was also asked to explain how much out of every rupee collected as tax went for development.

"There are several kinds of funds available, our corporator says. Could you give us a break-up of the funds available?'' the citizens asked. "There is a general budget allocation for different departments. There are civil and electrical works, parks, development works, ongoing projects, maintenance and public health. I am making a matrix of fund allocation for each ward,'' Mr. Babu explained.

The Standing Committee Chairman also clarified that the spill over from wards works from previous years, amounting to Rs.150 crore was very much a part of this year's budget. "In our budget, the only money spent on time is for salary and pension and next come health, garbage clearance and street lighting. If civil works of Rs.10 lakh are taken up and completed the same year, fine. But if it exceeds the limit, it goes on multiplying with every revision. Works are done in stages because of shortage of funds. When we have more money we call for tenders right away. So if taxes are paid in time we have revenue to pay the contractors.''

A tricky question was "Cannot the BMP spend money more efficiently. Sometimes works done earlier are included in the current Programme of Works?'' Mr. Babu replied: "I brought out the `Arthika Darpana' (Financial Mirror) for the ward's activities so that not only the corporator but also the citizens interact with each other and the citizens become more vigilant. Money available for spill over works can be used to complete new works identified by the coroprator after discussions with the residents.''

Mr. Babu explained that a Model Area Development Plan of Rs.15 crore had been proposed in the BMP budget. The amount would be divided proportionately between the 100 City wards. The ``model area'' was defined as a stretch in a ward with good footpaths, storm water drains and roads.

"If there are 10 km to be developed, this year we develop half a km and next year some more and so on. If corporators, NGOs and citizens take enough interest, the entire City can become a model area... It will take time, even years. The first thing I learnt from Janaagraha is how footpaths, drains and roads should be. So we make one small area a model, then we can do it for the whole City,'' he said. The citizens were also told that they could form a federation of all residents associations and submit reports of every work done in their area. This would help the BMP find out any irregularities.

The "Arthika Darpana" sessions will be conducted every two months and they will include ``Kandhaya sanghrahaney mahiti'' with details of tax collection, tax assessed and exemptions. "All these days such details were kept confident, now they were open and transparent,'' he said.

The citizens who asked the questions were Mukund (Ward 55), Sumati Rao (Ward 7), Damodar (Ward 54), Satej Alur (Ward 78), Sanjay Simha (Ward 58) and Arun and Chandrika Krishna of Ward 67.

Janaagraha can be contacted on Ph: 3542381, 3542382 and 3330668.

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