THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The gender budget for 2022-23 fiscal presented by the city corporation on Wednesday features a slew of women, child and elder-friendly projects. It also gives a major thrust to green initiatives to transform the capital into a ‘Low Carbon Ananthapuri’.
The budget also set aside money for housing and drinking water supply schemes, and a 10 per cent reduction in property tax for residents who dispose of waste at the source. Despite the loss, the civic body is launching the initiative to encourage more residents to practise source-level waste management. There are more than 2.9 lakh households in the capital and the corporation plans to bring at least 50,000 households under the scheme.
The plan is to install kitchen bins and deploy Haritha Karma Sena workers for non-biodegradable waste collection from households. The corporation collects around Rs 30 crore as property tax from households.
“By giving a tax incentive, we might lose around Rs 3 crore. But and our aim is to bring in a sustainable waste management system and we will bear this loss,” said the official.
Owing to the pandemic, a majority of the projects announced in the previous budget remains unrealised. However, the civic body is hoping to do better this year. Authorities say the last year had been a year of survival.
Girl power
The corporation has earmarked I20.57 crore for around 30 women-friendly projects. Around Rs 10 crore has been set aside to help 100 women from financially backward families get married. She-fitness centres, women resource centre training programmes, she lodges, she carts, women helpdesks and shelter homes, she-hubs and Mathrudeepams (an initiative for pregnant and lactating mothers) will get a boost.
Low carbon initiative
The budget also has many initiatives to reduce carbon footprint and make the capital greener. Solar power projects, more green spaces including Miyawaki forests, e-vehicles, alternatives for plastic and promotion of public transportation are included in it. To promote public transportation, the civic body has joined hands with KSRTC to launch ‘Gramavandikal’. Under this, the corporation will conduct services on select routes.