Emphasis has been laid on two major aspects -- public health & sanitation and engineering, in the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation budget, declared District Collector and VMC Special Officer Buddha Prakash M. Jyothi.
A cursory glance at the allocations in the budget gives an impression that there is a gross mismatch between claim and reality. Totally Rs.92.49 crore is earmarked for public health wing, veterinary, entomologist/biologist, vehicle depot etc. A major chunk of it goes towards salaries and wages. The CMEY and DWCUA members claim a share of Rs.24.53 crore, while wages of other staff including contract employees is more than Rs.43 crore.
There is no provision for development of new dumping yards which are need of the hour. The existing dumping yards in the city have exhausted and the Corporation has to spend crores of rupees to develop scientific yards even if the Government provides land free of cost. The VMC has earmarked Rs.60 lakh for maintenance of dumping yards and Rs.5.50 crore for fuel to run VMC vehicles.
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The repairs of vehicles and dumper bins are estimated to cost Rs.60 lakh.
There is hardly any emphasis on malaria eradication and mosquito menace in the city. Close to only Rs.3 crore has been earmarked under these heads. The corporation proposes to spend Rs.19 lakh on malaria eradication and Rs.50 lakh on purchase of chemicals. It plans to purchase mosquito nets valued at Rs.2 crore. Expenditure per head on eradicating mosquito menace gets reduced to a mere Rs.29 per head in a year.
Purchase of medicines for panchakarma, maintenance of hospitals, health programme etc. amounts close to Rs.2 crore only. Cost of the anti-rabies vaccines and control of stray animals, which are rocking the city, is estimated at just Rs.15 lakh. The less one speaks about testing of food samples the better. The VMC has not earmarked any amount for testing the food samples.
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It made a provision of Rs.5 lakh in 2012-13 budget estimates, but in the revised budget there is no mention of it at all.