BBMP builds more castles in the air

BANGALORE: Barely six months left for completion of fiscal 2011-12, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) presented Rs 1.46-crore surplus budget with a total expenditure of a whopping Rs 9,196.09 crore.Considering the poor record of the BBMP in implementing its plans, it is unlikely that the civic body would live up to its own expectations.Like in the past, the BBMP painted a rosy picture with dream projects like construction of five flyovers, seven underpasses, seven signal-free corridors among others. Besides, most of the works mentioned in the previous budget have been included as a spillover works.Manjunath Raju, chairperson of the Standing Committee on Taxation and Finance, BBMP who presented the budget on Thursday said the civic body would get Rs 1,500 crore special grants from state government.According to the budget estimation for 2011-12, total receipts are expected to be Rs 9,112.30 crore which includes Rs 1,650 crore of tax revenue and Rs 3,180 of non-tax revenue.But BBMP is just left with six months in the current fiscal and it may take at least a month to get the clearance from the BBMP council and a few weeks before its a final approval from it.Further, it will be forwarded the State Government for approval. The budget would then be placed before the Cabinet for a final approval.And considering the tall promises it has made in the budget, the BBMP will not even have time to call for tenders this year for many of the proposed projects. The cycle of spillover works continue with the budget becoming nothing more than just a paper exercise to the people of Bangalore.