‘Development means a situation in which poverty ceases to exist’ was a line that punctuated Deputy Mayor G. Happy Kumar’s speech while presenting the city Corporation’s Rs.1,184.17-crore budget for 2015-16 at a council meeting on Friday.
The Corporation’s budget looks partly like a rewind of the budgets from previous years, though some tinge of freshness is visible.
Unlike usual budget presentations where the Opposition councillors occasionally create ruckus, the meeting this year was surprisingly peaceful. In the previous year, though Rs.1,076 crore was the initial outlay, the civic body managed to spend only Rs.867.72 crore. But the spending was still higher from the 2013-14 spending of Rs.635.35 crore. The My City, Beautiful City project gets an outlay of Rs.20 crore and the comprehensive drainage-sewerage project gets Rs.112 crore.
Three flyovers are being planned at Peroorkada, Medical College, and Sreekaryam at a total cost of Rs.90 crore. A package for Kudappanakkunnu, Vattiyurkavu, Sreekaryam, and Kazhakuttam has been given Rs.20 crore.
The Udyananagaram project to revitalise ponds in the city receives a quantum jump in allocation from Rs.25 crore to Rs.100 crore, as part of the Urban 2020 programme. An outlay of Rs.50 crore has been allocated to improve roads. The Rs.1-crore project to build multi-level parking lots has been carried over from last year. The Animal Birth Control programme will be expanded to veterinary hospitals at Njandoorkonam and Thiruvallam. A mobile keyhole surgery unit will be bought.
A novel project is to provide accident insurance to all government school students in the city, at Rs.20 lakh. It also envisages providing free air ticket and other financial aid to Scheduled Caste youth seeking job opportunities abroad.
The Corporation also plans to start three multi-gymnasiums at Nedumcaud, Poojappura, and Shanghumughom, and a yoga centre for women. A Rs.30-crore project to modernise the Chala market comes in place of last year’s project to modernise five city markets. Also carried over is the project for a permanent market for Kudumbasree products to be set up at Saphalyam Complex, Palayam.
