GHMC slashes Budget to half after boo-boo

HYDERABAD: The GHMC seems to have made a mistake in its 2018-19 Budget. The `13,150 crore draft Budget for the next financial year, which was approved by the Standing Committee in November last year, is now going to be slashed to less than half of what was proposed. The Budget is now being revised to something between `6,200 and `6,300 crore and the revised proposal would be tabled before the next Standing Committee meeting for approval.

 From the earlier Budget, the GHMC has decided to remove subjects like the 2BHK housing scheme (costing around `6,317 crore), Hyderabad Road Development Corporation Limited (around `800 crore) and riverfront development project on Musi river (`700-`800 crore). Instead, separate proposals would be prepared for those projects, GHMC officials told Express. 

The State Finance Finance Department, which is preparing the overall State Budget, had urged GHMC to send its Budget in order to earmark funds for its needs. After seeing the details, the finance department asked GHMC to remove the three crucial subjects as the government has already created separate bodies for HRDCL and MRD and earmarked separate budgets for them. Interestingly, about 50 per cent (`6317.69 crore) of the previous GHMC Budget was allocated for the 2BHK scheme.