BMC promises animal-friendly city with faeces-free streets

Residents may hazard an optimistic attitude about their city this year as administrators in the civic body have decided to focus on completing their ongoing projects rather than taking on any ambitious new ones for the financial year 20132014 Sitaram Kunte BMC commissioner presents the budget for the fiscal year 20132014 at the Standing Committee Hall This year the civic body is focusing its energy on trying to keep the city clean PicShadab Khan BMC commissioner Sitaram Kunte released the estimated budget for the year 20132014 yesterday before the standing committee chairman Rahul Shewale The budget this year is Rs 2757867 crore a small rise from last yearrsquos figure of Rs 2658094 crore MiD DAY had reported yesterday that the BMC has failed to complete many of its projects which have been delayed for lsquoBMC still has many promises to keeprsquo This year the corporation is planning to focus its energies and funds on making the city cleaner and less of an eyesore Over the next five years the civic body had vowed to rid the city of its hideous banners and make open defecation on the streets a thing of the past in cooperation with politicians and various government bodies The BMC also has plans to start a separate animal welfare department which will look into their needs and address issues related to the cityrsquos animal community The civic body also has also planned to replace octroi with lsquolocal body taxrsquo LBT with effect from October 1 this year Roads In the new budgetary plans the BMC plans to attract big companies who can bid for the road works something that it avoided earlier The corporation has increased the package size of individual tenders to Rs 150 crore with this intention Earlier the tenders used to range from Rs 2030 crore which corporators claim led to cartelization of certain contractors making them complacent and making quality of work shoddy No more faeces One of the new projects in the pipeline for the BMC is to provide more toilets and arrange for sanitation in slums to make defecation on roads unnecessary The corporation is trying to obtain noobjection certificates from various state government bodies that look after railways forests and airports Approximately 9000 toilet seats have been made and 2646 seats have been ordered from various contractors LBT As per the government directives to the BMC octroi needs to be replaced by local body tax The administration has promised to boost a businessfriendly image of the city and remove hurdles associated with the current system of octroi collection The administrationrsquos present cash flow system is likely to change as it will get revenue at the end of every month in the new system A detailed study is yet to be conducted to check the viability of the new system before it is implemented Animal welfare The civic body is planning a number of pet parks In addition matters related to animal welfare will be managed by a separate department dedicated to the task As of now the executive health officer handles matters related to the animal community Officialspeak Municipal Commissioner Sitaram Kunte said ldquoLBT has to be levied and a proper study is going to consider whether it will generate same the revenue as the octroi did Only then will it come into force There is a need to have an animal welfare department to ensure that the animals are treated ethicallyrdquoHe added ldquoThe city needs a facelift and making it free of open defecation is very important We plan to achieve this goal in cooperation with various government authorities We also plan to make the city bannerfree we should be in the position to achieve this with help from politiciansrdquou00a0