BBMP budget: govt snubs commissioner

In what is seen as a snub to BBMP commissioner N Manjunath Prasad and the Opposition leaders, the Urban Development Department (UDD) has approved the civic body’s budget with minimum shrinkage.

The UDD approved various projects and schemes for the 2019-20 Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) budget, totalling up to Rs 11,648 crore, shaving off just Rs 1,308 crore of the Rs 12,956-crore budget presented by the BBMP’s Tax and Finance Standing Committee chairperson, P Hemalatha.

Prasad has been writing to the state government, urging a major slashing of the budget. In March, he asked UDD and Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara to slice off Rs 3,000 crore and keep the overall budget to about Rs 9,000 crore. The ruling Congress and JD(S) hold a majority in the BBMP council.

For BBMP, which presents an annual budget of around Rs 10,000 crore, this year’s budget is excessive by any measure. Earlier this year, it received Rs 8,015 crore as approvals for an action plan for three years and a further Rs 3,000 crore as a giant action plan approval for the flagship programme, Nava Bengaluru.