Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation's budget focuses on infra, water supply & health

PIMPRI CHINCHWAD: Civic chief Shekhar Singh presented a budget of Rs 7,128 crore, including Rs 1,414 crore worth of funds from the central and state governments, for 2023-2024 on Tuesday. There were no tax hikes in the budget, which may cheer residents, but there were also no new projects introduced, most likely because of the possibility of civic elections soon.
The budget has proposed Rs 1,801 crore for various development work, while a special funding of Rs 154 crore has been set aside for water supply and Rs 48 crore for women-oriented schemes. This was Singh's first budget as he assumed charge of the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) only last year.

The budget has made provisions for the strengthening of medical facilities in civic limits, a better water supply network, and a road network. Construction of a new administrative building, a new central fire brigade training centre, a 750-bed hospital at Moshi and a street-scaping project across major areas are also in the pipeline.
Other proposals include new pipelines for Old Sangvi, Pimple Nilakh and Chinchwad areas to resolve water woes, besides e-charging stations across civic limits.
Singh said the budget focuses on inclusive growth of the twin towns, and most specifically on infrastructure development, health, medical, waste management, hygiene and education.
"Instead of any kind of tax hike, we have broadened the tax net. We are conducting a survey of the unassessed properties, which will bring new properties under the tax net," Singh said. "Also, the recent government resolution that waived off penalties on illegal constructions will also pave the way to recover property tax." While the Nationalist Congress Party criticized the budget, the Bharatiya Janata Party said it is all-inclusive.
NCP's Pimpri Chinchwad city president Ajit Gavhane said the budget is disappointing for city dwellers as it lacks concrete projects. "The budget said that the river improvement project, Talera hospital, eye hospital in Masulkar colony, cancer hospital on a PPP basis, waste to energy, main administrative building construction, and biogas project will be started in the current year.
All these projects were approved during the BJP rule and their work orders have also been issued. The budget just shows earlier projects as new ones," Gavhane said.
Mahesh Landge, the city president and BJP MLA from Pimpri Chinchwad, said: "Various schemes have been announced for the economically-weaker sections of the city in the budget. Administrator Shekhar Singh has presented a comprehensive budget.
A special provision has been made for the construction of the largest 750-bed hospital in the Pune district to be implemented in Moshi. Along with this, various projects in the involved villages have also been boosted. The work of 'Namami Indrayani' will speed up due to the river improvement project."