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The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) announced its civic budget of INR 2,166 crore for 2014-15 on Tuesday, which was essentially about rationalisation of tax structures and improving delivery mechanism of the civic body, according to commissioner Aseem Gupta. For the common man, Gupta has drawn up ambitious plans to improve road infrastructure, conserve and protect the lakes and incentivise citizens who embrace green initiatives in their neighbourhood.

Gupta has also proposed to take up widening and asphalting of 10 missing road links, which would ease traffic movement. There are plans to improve road connectivity and remove bottlenecks on close to 6 km of roads with an allocation of over five crore. There are plans to launch special Thane Municipal Transport buses for women to ensure a hassle-free ride.

Living in Thane could turn more expensive, if Gupta's high tax proposals get endorsed by the 130-strong elected body of the TMC. The cost of living in Thane's middle class neighbourhood and the affluent enclaves could take a huge leap with proposals to impose additional cess on property tax and development charges payable by the builder, a higher water tax for all users and only-by-payment policy for parking of vehicles.

Gupta, in his maiden budget speech at the standing committee of the TMC on Tuesday, wants builders or residents of high-rise towers to install CCTVs on the refuge floors which in turn are linked to the civic body's monitor room for safety measures. The costs are to be borne by residents. Justifying his decision to impose a two per cent cess on property tax and development charges, the civic chief said the basic idea was to cater to the housing needs of the urban poor by constructing affordable homes from these funds. He expects to collect INR 20 crore from these new taxation initiatives.

His proposal to link the water tax rates with power tariffs of that day and the cost of raw water supplied to TMC from outside agencies would pinch the residents but come as a major revenue boost for the department which is already faced with an annual INR 100 crore loss.

Doing a fine political balance, Gupta ensured that the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP and their rivals Congress-NCP get their due share in the budget allocations. Sena's long-pending proposal for a memorial of their leader Bal Thackeray near Marathon chowk would be taken up shortly with a budget allocation of INR 3.50 crore. NCP leader Jitendra Awhad's proposal for improved infrastructure in his constituency Kalwa finds a prominent mention in the budget speech with plans to allocate INR 50 lakh for construction of rail overbridge at Kharegaon, widening of the roads in Thane and construction of a bridge over the Kalwa creek with an initial allocation of INR 17 crore.

Source-On Request