The Municipal Commissioner has announced a gargantuam budget exceeding 12,000 crores for the city this year. The aim is to enhace city infrastructure, provide new amenities and keep taxes under control. All in all a great formula on paper.

However it remains to be seen what pans out.

Presenting the Rs12,866 crore budget for the city on Tuesday, municipal commissioner Dr Jairaj Phatak said it was a “realistic budget that took the city’s priorities into account.” The Centre has added a few hundred crore rupees to the corpus.

Mumbai residents may find it heartening that although the BMC has provided an additional Rs3,258 crore this year, there will be no tax rise. The civic infrastructure will be granted a sizeable chunk (43 per cent) of the outlay. Another Rs2,353.63 crore will be deployed to buttress social infrastructure such as hospitals and schools. [link]

What remains to be seen is how much of this money actually makes it for the right causes and how much of it will get siphoned off as bribes etc. I frankly have my doubts. We will evaluate in a year and see.