Mumbai: BMC spends Rs 1,632 crore to curb COVID-19, needs Rs 400 crore more

BMC had set up a quarantine centre at BKC in May this year. File pic

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has already spent Rs 1,632 crore to curb the spread of COVID-19 and fight the pandemic, but now it needs another Rs 400 crore to fund the process further. The civic body has placed a proposal before the standing committee to allow it transfer the additional amount from the budget funds to the contingency fund so that it can be used for several initiatives undertaken to deal with the pandemic.

So far, the BMC has spent the maximum amount of Rs 453.11 crore for setting up a COVID care facility at SevenHills hospital and another Rs 213.08 crore for the creation and upkeep of jumbo facilities.

The civic body has been using the contingency fund which had an allocated budget provision of Rs 852 crore. However, to ensure that the funds don't fall short, the BMC rejigged its budget and added another Rs 300 crore along with Rs 60 crore from the state government. Later, it realised that even these funds won't be enough and then decided to go for a budget cut of all its departments and saved Rs 1,644 crore. From these funds, the BMC added another Rs 450 crore to its contingency fund and made a total of Rs 1,662 crore available to be used for the pandemic.

Recently, the standing committee had questioned the expenditure on food packets, which was more than R100 crore. The members had demanded an explanation and also asked for an audit. "The BMC has already spent Rs 1,632 crore and now expects a sanction of another Rs 400 crore. It should explain why so much money was spent," said Rais Shaikh, BMC standing committee member and Samajwadi Party MLA and corporator.

Ravi Raja, Congress opposition leader in BMC said, "This is the fault of the ruling party as they have no control over the civic administration. The civic body has wasted money of the taxpayers. Why should the BMC pay for the BKC ground jumbo centre? It has also spent a lot of money on the Seven Hills COVID centre."

Requesting anonymity, a civic official said, "We have been using the contingency fund, which is used in case of emergency. This is a pandemic, so a lot of infrastructure had to be set up keeping the best interests of the citizens in mind. As the pandemic has not yet ended, we will need another Rs 400 crore because the contingency fund just has Rs 29 crore in balance."