#KK Jha

Indore | Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargav here on Thursday presented his maiden paperless budget of the Indore Municipal Corporation's for the year 2023-2024. The budget shows a fiscal deficit of Rs 88 crores with an estimated income of Rs 7473 crore against estimated expenses of Rs 7341 crore. Keeping in view the assembly elections due next year, the IMC budget has proposed no new tax for the common people.

The budget mainly focuses on six areas-- Clean City, Digital City, Green City, Solar City and Yog City with special emphasis on traffic management.

To continue the winning streak for cleanest city, Indore Municipal Corporation has paid a special emphasis on Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. In the budget, allocation under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has been raised to Rs 121 crore against 112 crore in the last financial year. Rs 1491 crore has been allocated for sewage treatment against last year's Rs 579 crore.

Taking a step towards both-- Clean and Green city, the civic body has proposed to generate the 'Energy from Waste' concept. The IMC will implement the idea of 3R- 'Recycle Reuse and Reduce' across 85 wards. On the principles of `Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and `Recover', the IMC will develop a 4R Garden in the city. Besides, it will develop 29 slums of the city as Green slums.

While presenting his maiden budget, the Mayor announced to bring the Air Quality Index of the city to 50 in the next two years, will discourage use of plastic and will set up a C&D construction and destruction waste plant of 200 tons per day capacity.

Before presenting the budget, the Mayor, MIC members and all corporators, MLAs paid tributes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mother Heeraben, senior journalist Abhay Chhajlani and other departed souls.