Asansol Municipal Corporation (AMC) has placed a Rs 57.85-lakh deficit budget for the financial year 2024-2025. The earning will be Rs 421.05 crore and the expenditure will be Rs 421.62 crore.

Bidhan Upadhyay, mayor of Asansol Municipal Corporation has placed the Rs 421 crore 62 lakh 85 thousand budget for the next financial year. Asansol Municipal Corporation is the second largest civic body of the state after Kolkata with a total 106 wards. “We have planned to provide even better civic facilities in the coming year,” said Bidhan Upadhyay.

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Through this budget, the civic body has planned to provide clean and green Asansol, collect old dues, provide 24×7 tap water to each house, construction of pucca roads, drains, street lights etc.

Funds are also allocated for health, education, culture, sports and other social programmes.

In this budget, a major emphasis has been laid on the solid waste management (SWM) of Asansol Municipal Corporation. To make the city clean and green (Asansol was the second dirtiest city of the country till a few years ago), a project of beautification and greenery has also been planned at a cost of Rs 17 crore.

Steps have already been undertaken by the civic body, jointly with SUDA and WBPCB to check the growing air pollution in the city.

Asansol is one of the oldest industrial towns of the country and was an unplanned city leading to large-scale pollution from the surrounding industrial units.

But the biggest chunk of funds in this civic budget has been allocated for the drinking water connection to each and every house at a cost of Rs 130 crore.

To construct a green stretch along the erstwhile Grand Trunk Road on the opposite side of the century-old Christian Missionary Schools after clearing the illegal encroachments, a fund of Rs 1.25 crore has been allocated.

Four new Urban Primary Health Centres (UPHC) will be set up at a cost of Rs 196.79 lakh. Funds have also been allocated for Bangla, Hindi and Urdu academies.

Focus will be on paperless (digital) administrative jobs, online tendering system, e-filing of taxes will start in all the boroughs.

Taxes will be collected in every borough office along with issuing of trade licences.

Earnings of the Asansol Municipal Corporation have been estimated to come from individual holding taxes, renewal of trade licenses, parking fees, building plan sanctions, mutations, commercial and domestic highrise buildings, water tax collections etc.