The fight against COVID-19 was never expected to go easy on the state and civic exchequer, and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has now provided details on the money it has spent to combat the virus since the first case was discovered in March this year.
While the civic body mentioned that it has received Rs 84 crore from the Maharashtra State Government, it reportedly hasn’t asked for additional funds.
This is because the BMC is dipping into its 850 crore ‘contingency fund’ kept in place for unforeseen emergencies such as COVID-19. The civic body has reportedly used a total of Rs 600 crore from its contingency fund, the authorities added.
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The information was provided by the BMC’s Additional Municipal Commissioner, P Velrasu, who also said: “We have not asked for any specific fund from the government.” A bulk of the expenses that were incurred by the BMC were reportedly pertaining to distribution of food packets to the needy, construction of health infrastructure, and so on since the pandemic hit the metropolitan region.
While the BMC didn’t provide clarity on whether they will demand funds from the State, authorities said that they may rejig the budgetary allocations if the need arises.
It was recently revealed that the BMC is looking at a revenue loss of around Rs 14,000 crore for the 2020-21 period. This also led the civic body to cut its original revenue estimates by around 10 per cent.
Also read - RTI Reveals That BMC Has Deposited ₹86 Crores In The Relief Fund In Four Months
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