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Maharashtra

This year, BMC promises good health, infra, ecology, ease and quality of life for Mumbai

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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday unveiled a whopping Rs 45,949.21 crore budget 2022-2023, up by 18 per cent over the previous year’s

Rs 39,039.83 crore with a tiny surplus of Rs 8.43 crore.

With the upcoming BMC elections, this year, the country’s biggest and richest civic body will have a massive focus on health, infrastructure, ecology, flood control, besides improving the ‘ease’ and ‘quality’ of life for the 1.75-crore Mumbaikars living in the country’s commercial and glamour capital.

Some highlights are constructing and redevelopment of major hospitals, rejuvenation of the Mithi river, electric vehicle charging centres, IGCSE and IB schools in the Mumbai civic education bouquet, and appointing Urban Space Designers to improve the civic landscape.

Presenting the budget at the Standing Committee meeting, Municipal Commissioner I. S. Chahal said that the estimated revenues this year would be Rs 30,743.61 crore, which is higher by Rs 2,832.04 crore over the previous year’s estimates, and the actual income received till January 2022 was Rs 30,851.18 crore.

On the crucial health front – as the city was the worst-hit in the country during the Covid-19 pandemic of the past two years – the BMC will spend Rs 6933.75 crore – or 15.09 per cent of the total budget – to augment and improve various health-care facilities.

This would include: 200 HinduHridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Health Centres under the ‘Health care at your neighbourhood’ scheme, setting up 200 Shiv Yoga Centres, standardising and modernising civic dispensaries, constructing a new Centenary Hospital in Govandi, a medical college building at Cooper Hospital, redevelopment of two major medical facilities – Bhagwati Hospital in Borivali, Sion Hospital, plus Sidharth/Murli Deora Eye Hospitals, a new Cancer Hospital for Proton Therapy at the KEM Hospital premises, expanding the MT Agarwal Hospital and Bhabha Hospital, extending the Nair Dental College, etc.

Eyeing the civic polls, the BMC will stress on major flood-control measures with an outlay of Rs 1,539.79 crore, for the revival of the 18-kms long Mithi River and its other branches in the suburbs at Dahisar, Poisar, Oshiwara and their major drainage nullahs, plus 386 chronic flood spots that result in submerging many parts of the city during the monsoons.

Chahal said that 95 per cent of the widening and deepening work, 80 per cent of retaining wall construction of Mithi River are completed which has doubled the holding capacity and carrying capacity by 3 times, while the plan for development and pollution control is ready and shall be implemented in four packages.

The BMC has strengthened the capacity to pump out floodwaters in different parts of the city, improved its Storm Water Drain network based on the BRIMSTOWAD Master Plan Report of 1993, and of 58 priority works, 42 have been completed, 13 are in progress and 3 have yet to be taken up.

On the infrastructure front, the BMC will spend Rs 3200 crore for the ambitious Coastal Road Project, visualised by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Rs 1300 crore for the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road with 2 flyovers, and Rs 1340 crore for a Sewerage Treatment Project.

For the ‘eco-friendly’ image of Mumbai known as a ‘concrete jungle,’ a significant 219 kms of roads in the city will be improved during the year, electronic vehicle (EV) charging stations in all the 30 major public parking lots, EVs shall be deployed for garbage collection-segregation, Rs 1 crore specifically for ‘electric and electronic waste’ recovery centre in each BMC Ward, more electric crematoria and eco-friendly funeral pyres.

On January 14, the BMC became only the 3rd civic body in the world after Dubai and Singapore to offer 80 public services via a ChatBot, and this year it will become ‘smarter’ by permitting ‘digital advertisements’ to boost revenue, promote digital forms of collecting Property Tax and Water Tax bills, and also other payments.

Stressing on education with a budget of Rs 3370.24 crore – 14.45 per cent higher than last year’s Rs 2945.78 crore – the BMC plans to provide 19,401 SSC students with tabs with latest syllabus, an improvement academic tool in the days of online education, digitalise 1,300 classrooms, and a pilot project of E-Libraries in 50 primary schools.

Already offering the Maharashtra Board, CBSE and ICSE boards in civic schools, this year the BMC will introduce Cambridge University-affiliated IGCSE and one International Baccalaureate (IB) for the derided amunicipality students’.

To ‘ease’ the life of citizens, the BMC will empanel Urban Space Designers to study and rework on roads, pavements, and community spaces to enhance the ‘Ease of Walking’, instal more streetlights for security of women and children and seniors under the ‘Ease of Safety’, new bridges/cement-concrete roads for ‘Ease of Commute’, besides its other ‘easing’ policies like ‘Ease of Doing Business’, ‘Ease of Compliance’, ‘East of Monitoring’ and ‘Ease of Service Delivery’, etc.

In a New Year bonanza announced by the CM, the BMC will exempt Property Tax from 16,14,000 people owning a residential property of 500-sq.feet carpet area which will lead to a drop of Rs 462 crore in the annual revenues.

The Congress Group Leader in BMC Ravi Raja and Bharatiya Janata Party city MLA Ashish Shelar and other opposition parties slammed the budget as ‘disappointing’ and ‘lacking on various fronts’.

Maharashtra

Mumbai Weather Update: City Sees Clear Skies After Heavy Overnight Downpour, Yellow Alert Issued; Overall AQI In Moderate Range At 63

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Mumbai: After heavy rains lashed the city on Friday, bringing brief waterlogging and traffic disruptions, Mumbai woke up to sunny skies on Saturday morning. However, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) cautioned that the respite may be short-lived, as the city remains under a Yellow Alert with a forecast of partly cloudy skies and a possibility of moderate rain or thunderstorms through the day.

According to the IMD, temperatures are expected to hover around 34°C during the day and dip to about 25°C at night. The brief spell of unseasonal rain not only cooled the weather but also brought a remarkable improvement in the city’s air quality, which had deteriorated sharply post-Diwali due to increased pollution and stagnant winds.

Overall AQI In Moderate Category

Real-time data from AQI.in showed that Mumbai’s overall Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 63 on Saturday morning, placing it in the moderate category, a notable recovery from the unhealthy levels recorded earlier in the week.

Among the city’s monitoring stations, Wadala Truck Terminal reported the highest pollution level with an AQI of 190, followed by BKC (75), Kurla (73), Worli (73) and Chembur (72). While mild traces of smog lingered in some of these areas during the early morning, visibility and air freshness improved significantly across most parts of Mumbai.

On the other hand, several localities recorded remarkably clean air. Thakur Village in Kandivali reported the city’s best air quality with an AQI of 25, while Parel-Bhoiwada (32), Malad West (38), Borivali East (40), and Kandivali East (43) also registered good air quality, offering much-needed relief to residents.

As per AQI.in’s classification, readings between 0–50 indicate “Good” air, 51–100 “Moderate”, 101–150 “Poor”, 151–200 “Unhealthy”, and above 200 “Severe” to “Hazardous.”

Friday’s rain marked the third unseasonal spell after the official monsoon withdrawal and was accompanied by lightning, thunder and gusty winds. The IMD had issued a Nowcast warning late Friday evening, alerting of potential thunderstorms and moderate rainfall over Mumbai and adjoining districts. Meanwhile, most parts of Maharashtra, excluding the Vidarbha region, continue to remain under a Yellow Alert for the next few days.

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Maharashtra

Brave officer risked his life to save injured girl

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Mumbai: Mumbai Police Traffic Officer has shown bravery in saving a young girl from the clutches of a cruel lover, after which this officer is being praised. He took the injured and bleeding girl to the hospital and risked his life to free her from the armed youth, after which the youth committed suicide.
‎Today at 10:17 am, a call was received from the MTP helpline of the Byculla Traffic Department Group that two-wheelers and four-wheelers were parked on the footpath in front of Meoresh Building, Dataram Lad Marg, Kalachowki, causing inconvenience to the passers-by. In response to the said call, Rider Police Constable Karan Suryavanshi of the Byculla Traffic Department reached the spot. When he was taking action at the said place, some people present there told the officer that a boy was attacking a girl with a knife in the cabin of Astha Nursing Home. Seeing the seriousness of the incident, Kiran Suryavanshi immediately went to the spot and tried to free the victim girl from the clutches of the accused boy and took her out of the nursing home. Since she was in an injured condition, he showed haste and without a moment’s delay, put the girl in a taxi and brought her to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital, Ranibag. The girl was given first aid there. Officers and personnel from Kalachowki took the injured woman to JJ Hospital for further treatment.

Besides, in this incident, the attacker also stabbed himself and was taken to KEM Hospital with the help of Kalachowki Police Station.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone 4, Assistant Commissioner of Police as well as Senior Police Inspector of Kalachowki Police Station visited Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Railway Hospital.

The girl is undergoing treatment at Sir JJ Hospital. Police officers from Kalachowki police station are conducting further investigations. The officer is being praised for protecting the girl without caring for his own life and saving her from the clutches of her heartbroken lover.

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Maharashtra

Samajwadi Party is not part of Mumbai Municipal Corporation Vikas Aghadi: Abu Asim Azmi

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Mumbai: The Samajwadi Party will not enter into an electoral alliance with the Maha Vikas Aghadi in the Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, not will it be part of this alliance. Those who objected to the release of innocent Muslims imprisoned for 19 years but remained silent on the release of the accused in the Malegaon blasts. Those who express pride in the demolition of the Babri Masjid, take the names of Lord Ram and Lord Vishwanath, but call the holy water of the Sangam smelly and make Uttar Bharatiyas and North Indians a target for violence. This is a province where the Pawars go to do their country’s panddan. Those belonging to such provinces insult and subject North Indians and Biharis to violence.

If such people are part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, the Samajwadi Party will never be part of it.

The Samajwadi Party does politics of justice, secularism, constitutional values ​​and Ganga-Jamuni culture. Therefore, we cannot be part of any alliance that includes forces that spread hatred and divide the country. This kind of explanation has been given by Mumbai Maharashtra Samajwadi Party leader and MLA Abu Asim Azmi. Elections are approaching, in such a situation, Mahayoti and Maha Vikas Aghadi are very serious about their allied parties. In such a situation, the Samajwadi Party has clearly refused to enter into an understanding with Maha Vikas Aghadi and has called it biased. Now there is curiosity about the expected entry and entry of MNS in Maha Vikas. In such a situation, the Samajwadi Party has denied it and said that it is unable to participate in the elections with those who incite violence on the basis of regionalism.

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