Although it sent a collective sigh of relief through the city’s population by choosing not to impose new taxes in the civic budget for the year 2014-15, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had nothing new or exciting to offer the city either.

Not that plans and allotments mean much to the civic departments. Last year, the civic body had vowed in its budget to make the city banner-free and ‘open-defecation free’ in the next five years. The banners are still hanging, and a walk in any lane of the city will tell you how little headway has been made in curbing public defecation.