<html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium)"> <o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"/> <o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"/>  <style>  </style> </head> <body lang=EN-IN link=blue vlink=purple> <div class=Section1> SAVE THE HYDERABADI PEDESTRIAN FROM EXTINCTION<o:p></o:p> <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Hyderabad</st1:City></st1:place>: Is the GHMC Budget forward looking? Where is the poor pedestrian in all this? How do the urban poor go to earn their livelihood? <o:p></o:p> A Kilometre of 8 feet width footpath costs ONLY about 30 lakhs!! Can the GHMC not afford to spend that money and save lives?? Basically if about 250 Crores are made available, then the entire city’s footpaths can be made walkable.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Regards<o:p></o:p> Kanthi Kannan<o:p></o:p> The Right to Walk Foundation<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> GHMC budget forward looking’ <o:p></o:p> <table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellpadding=0 width="100%" bgcolor="#D0F0FF" style='width:100.0%;background:#D0F0FF'> <tr> <td style='padding:.75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt'> Corporation’s budget sees 8.4 p.c. hike from last year <o:p></o:p> </td> </tr> </table> <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">HYDERABAD</st1:place></st1:City>: Economic slowdown notwithstanding, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, has pegged the next year’s (2009-2010) budget outlay at Rs. 3,159 crore, a clean 8.4 per cent hike from last year’s Rs. 2,920 crore with special focus on housing and poverty alleviation.<o:p></o:p> Draft budget proposals released here on Thursday by Commissioner S.P. Singh projected a capital expenditure of Rs. 2,160 crore, same as capital receipts, with intent to go for ‘innovative’ methods to raise revenue from property tax in processing Layout Regularisation (LRS) and Building Penalisation Schemes (BPS) as well as PPP modes. Flanked by Special Commissioner M.T. Krishna Babu and Additional Commissioner (Finance) B. Ramesh Babu, the Commissioner claimed that the budget was “realistic and futuristic” to propel the “right kind of balanced development”. <o:p></o:p> Separate budget <o:p></o:p> A separate poverty alleviation budget was proposed for the first time with an outlay of Rs. 870.53 crore (including Rs. 630 crore for housing) or 28 per cent of the overall budget for improving the lives of the poor.<o:p></o:p> “We were finding it difficult to track the spending on urban community development earlier,” pointed out Mr. Singh and expected the new move to help identify and implement programmes for the poor better. “Our focus is to make <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Hyderabad</st1:place></st1:City> an international class mega city with inclusive growth as infrastructure development also mean providing amenities like housing,” he said.<o:p></o:p> Major projects proposed are road restoration work at Rs. 354 crore, road widening Rs. 171 crore, storm water drains Rs. 180 crore, BRTS Rs. 150 crore, MMTS Rs. 200 crore, River Musi Rs. 15 crore and so on. Accepting that the recession was going to have its impact, he observed that revenues from ads, stamp duty, building fees, etc., could be hit. However, he expects substantial revenue from LRS and BPS processes as more than two lakh have applied for these schemes. “Without increasing property tax, there will be growth from assessment of new buildings, conversion from residential to commercial and extra built up space declared under BPS once the court case is over,” he said.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> </div> </body> </html>