Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) Mayor R Priya tabled the city Budget for the financial year 2023 - 2024 on Monday, March 27. The budget places primary focus on education, infrastructure, stormwater drain and other projects, including new schools, traffic management, ward development funds and more. Here are some of the highlights of the Chennai budget:
The GCC said that it would provide counselling to adolescent students studying in corporation-run schools, allocating Rs 30 lakh in the budget to hire counsellors. Further, Rs 25 crore is allocated for maintenance of corporation schools, including repairing the roofs with epoxy waterproofing technology. Under the Namakku Naame scheme, smart classrooms with internet access will be developed in corporation schools, Priya announced. In order to encourage school teachers who helped students achieve 100% pass results, the GCC will provide aid of Rs 3,000 to help them enrol in online training courses. The GCC has allocated Rs 12 lakh for the programme in this year’s budget.
Further, in a big step to encourage students to pursue higher education, the GCC will increase the financial aid from Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000 for those who earn centum marks in Higher Secondary School Certificate exams. “It will be helpful for the students for their higher studies,” Priya said. For this initiative, GCC has allotted Rs 10 lakh.
Mayor Priya also announced that the GCC will bear first-year tuition fees of students who clear the national-level entrance exams like the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE), Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and enter the institutes like IIT, National Law School of India, AIIMS, and MMC. Priya also said that medical camps will be set up every three months in schools for health checkups for students.
Under the Namakku Naame scheme, with an investment of Rs 3.13 crore from Capital and Hope Foundation India, the Chennai corporation will also build a model school on Anna Road at a cost of Rs 6.26 crore.
Chennai corporation officials will join hands with the city police and traffic police personnel in order to ease traffic in the city, including removing abandoned vehicles from roads which create traffic snarls. Further, three of the cleanest wards from each zone will be rewarded for efficient solid waste management.
With financial assistance from the Asian Development Bank, stormwater drains will be constructed in zones 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 8 in Chennai. The project will benefit the people of Tiruvottiyur, Manali, Madhavaram, and Ambattur. A sum of Rs 1000 crore has been allocated for it. In the core city, the SWD project will be taken up in the places which were not covered in the previous financial year. The corporation has allotted Rs 232 crore for the construction of stormwater drains, with an additional Rs 55 crore for desilting the stormwater drains.
Chennai city corporation is planning to construct a mortuary for those who die of sudden natural causes or accidents and if their immediate kin live abroad. The bodies of the deceased persons will be kept in this mortuary until their relatives can come and collect them. This Public Private Partnership programme will set up the chamber in Anna Nagar Velangadu crematorium at the cost of Rs 1 crore. Before implementing this project, the city corporation said that it will receive feedback from the citizens to proceed further.
Priya introduced a program called Makkalai Thedi Mayor, in which the mayor herself will receive the public grievances from all the zones every month. People can directly meet the mayor and air their grievances.
From the financial year 2023-2024, the ward development funds for each councillor will be increased from Rs 35 to Rs 40 lakh per year. The family security fund for the councillors also increased from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3 lakh. This fund will be provided to their kin if a sitting councillor dies.