CHENNAI Corporation budget may offer sops for slums

source:http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/corporation-budget-may-offer-sops-for-slums/248135.html

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai, on February 15, 2011:

CHENNAI: With the Assembly elections due in May, the Chennai Corporation is likely to unveil several schemes in its budget to be presented on Tuesday specifically aimed at the lakhs of slum voters, a solid vote bank for the ruling DMK party over the years.

Besides targeting the slum voters, to woo the minority segment in the city, Corporation is also likely to announce separate burial grounds for Muslims and Christians, one of the long-standing demands, at two places in North and South Chennai.

According to sources, the budget for the 2011-12 period is likely to remain a tax-free budget like the previous four years and is speculated to be slum-centric.

Sources said that schemes like the laying of concrete roads in slum areas, conducting of regular health camps and special package to persuade slum children to get enrolled in schools and many more slum-centric proposals were likely to be part of Mayor M Subramanian’s budgetary speech to be presented on Tuesday.

People also suspect that the Rs120-crore road works being carried out with joint funding from the government and the Corporation in ‘breakneck’ speed was predominantly to create a good atmosphere (read mindset) among the urban voters just prior the elections.

With the civic body facing financial crunch after the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations last year, allocation in infrastructure was likely to be reduced as several flyovers were built and work for 10 more bridges were progressing across the city at an estimated cost of Rs 400 crore.