The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday unveiled the Rs 39,038.83 crore budget for the year 2021-22. The total budget estimates for the next financial year are 16.74 per cent more than the last fiscal when it had presented a budget of Rs 33,441 crore.
Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was "disappointed" with the Mumbai civic body's budget for the year 2021-22. The AAP said the budget was an "old wine in a new bottle".
"The budget is all window dressing, no provision has been made to improve existing school infrastructure and improve student learning outcomes, especially in a post COVID world. It is ironic that the BMC thinks that the mere change of a logo and a name, will fix the BMC's education system which is in tatters," AAP said in its press release.
"For health infrastructure, BMC's allocation stands at ₹4278 crores, which is 10.95% of the budget. In Delhi, it is 16% of the budget and it shows. Unless, our Primary Health Care centres are fixed, which are not even fully functional right now, nothing can fix our healthcare system, the shoddiness of which was exposed in the COVID-19 pandemic," he added.
AAP's Mumbai Prabhari Preeti Sharma Menon said the BMC "has yet again failed Mumbaikars". "The BMC budget is a yearly ritual to please the builder-contractor lobby. There is no report on the outcome of the previous years budget and no people's participation in the formulation of this year's budget. BMC's healthcare-7.54% and education expenditure and 10.95% speaks volumes of it's priorites," she said.
"The thousands of crores lying in BMC's fixed deposits are meant for the people, not for operational inefficiencies by the BMC. AAP will continue to hold the BMC accountable and we hope that Mumbaikars will elect us to implement the Delhi model of good governance in Mumbai," Menon added.
