A Glimpse at NMMC Budget 2008-2009

April 9, 2008
The NMMC Budget decides how your city will shape in the coming fiscal year. While the general body members failed to take the budget discussions seriously, the Standing Committee did. Standing Committee projections vis-a-vis the suggestions made by the members during the six sessions of the deliberations on the NMMC budget for 2008 – 09.
The Standing Committee Chairman Sandeep Naik’s finalization of the allocations is undoubtedly a well studied result of application of much thought, quite ambitions, youthful hi tech and incorporating much of what most members suggested in large measures. Let’s take a look at all that has been proposed by Standing Committee Chairman Sandeep Naik :

• 2 Olympic Size Swimming Pools
• 4 Indoor Stadiums
• 5 Gateway Arches
• One NMMC school run by a private institute on experimental basis
• A Multi Media Central Public Library
• A City Tower
• Science Center
• Aquarium
• Planetorium
• Escalator Over Bridge (as experimental pilot project)
• Artificial Pond (for idol immersion)
• Taking over and developing dam in Ithanpada
• Surveillance Cameras in public places
• Mangrove Tourism Development
• Compound Walls for vacant plots (of CIDCO, MIDC and the Collector)
• Amusement Park (in Adivali - Bhutavli)
• Tourist Spot in Gavli Dev
• Citizen Card for all residents
• Erecting Transit Camps
• Metro Rail Survey

Besides this the Standing Committee has also proposed additional allocation of Rs. 12 Crores for roads and Rs. 2 Crores for maintenance of public toilets, making footpaths in all village lanes in the city and making all NMMC ward and other offices presentable and hi-tech in keeping with the image of the 21st century. The unprecedented allocation of Rs. 25 Crores for civic works inside condominiums, which is Rs. 21 Crores more than what the administration proposed, is the biggest bonanza for thousands of families living in CIDCO built tenements.
To meet the all the allocations, the members raised performance targets of various departments. Let’s take a look at those.

• Cess revenue has been increased to Rs. 285 Crores, which is Rs. 60 Crores above administration’s target
• Property tax to Rs. 200 Crore, which is Rs. 39 Crore above administration’s target
• Rs. 30 Crore from sale of Morbe water, which is Rs. 8 Crore above the administration’s target
• Rs. 10 Crores from sale of treated sewage water that is double the commissioner’s target
• Rs. 4 Crore from illegal structures, which is Rs. 1.75 Crore above the administration’s target
• Rs. 3.5 Crore from advertisements, banner, hoarding, which is Rs. 1.45 Crore above the administrations target and for the first time Rs. 1 Crore has been projected from carbon credits and Rs. 2 Crore from entertainment tax.

It is the administration that proposed the budget but the people’s touch can be added to it only when public representatives study the budget and make changes for the good of the city. If the NMMC administration executes even 50% of the dream budget, Sandeep Naik will win the battle in stemming the rot in the system that ails the civic body. Standing Committee Chairman Sandeep Naik displayed focused, studied and enthusiastic adventurism in providing for several amenities for the citizens for the first time in the over a decade and half years old, municipal body. Sandeep Naik should be credited for his bold initiative to pin accountability on the heads of departments during the budget deliberations and finalization. Without mincing intentions and inclinations he demanded the required facelift for the city as none of his predecessors cared or dared to, in the 13 years existence of the Standing Committee. Unlike past chairmen, he did not point past failures but stressed on immediate performance. Sandeep Naik and his team in the standing committee have dared to dream and spell out a dream budget that has raised hopes of citizens for a truly world class city with best of amenities for the common man. In a corporation lacking a system to review and monitor performance, Sandeep Naik’s vision has triggered the beginning of the process of dreaming corporate – like in the civic body, which is a heartening change. This budget promises to give the city the best of the amenities and undoubtedly Sandeep Naik deserves a lion’s share of this credit.