With an eye on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) followed in the footsteps of the State in unveiling a budget that focused on welfare and health programmes, especially for women.
The 2019-20 budget, with an outlay of ₹10,688.63 crore, was presented by the chairperson of the Standing Committee for Taxation and Finance S.P. Hemalatha, amid protests by the Opposition BJP councillors who termed it “unrealistic”.
Ms. Hemalatha summed up the vision of the budget as one that aimed to provide efficient administration, empower women, provide them with financial security, and create a healthy environment in Bengaluru.
Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun described the budget as “pro-poor and welfare oriented”, but said that it had no bearing on the Lok Sabha elections.
However, the Opposition BJP called it a “bogus budget”, claiming that the outlay was inflated with no grounding in reality. Opposition leader Padmanabha Reddy alleged that there was disparity in the allocation of funds to constituencies represented by BJP MLAs.
The estimated tax revenue is ₹3,541.95 crore, while the non-tax revenue is ₹3,083.28 crore. The budget takes into account government grants under various heads amounting to ₹3,606.11 crore, including ₹2,300 crore recently announced in the State Budget.
Of the estimated expenditure, a lion's share has been allocated to development works, followed by solid waste management and welfare programmes. While ₹4,945.91 crore is the total estimated spend for development works, ₹1,186.80 crore has been allocated to SWM and ₹1,071.43 crore to welfare programmes.
However, most of the development works are part of the recently presented State Budget and the BBMP has drawn flak for not introducing any new infrastructure projects. Wards in new zones will get ₹3 crore, while those in the old zones will get ₹2 crore, for which ₹465 crore has been set aside.