BMC gets only Rs 86 crore to fight Covid-19

Despite the fact that Mumbai tops in the list of highest number of novel coronavirus infected city in the country, neither government nor the donors have come out to rescue the city in terms of providing financial assistance from their behalf. It can be a startling fact to anyone that Mumbai civic body has receive the fund of only Rs. 86 crore in 4 months to fight deadly pandemic. The highest share (84 per cent) of the fund has come from Mumbai city collector itself. This fact has been unleashed through an RTI query by RTI Activist Anil Galgali. 

RTI Activist Anil Galgali had sought information from Mumbai civic body to inform about the funds received under Covid 19 arrangements. The chief accountant's office of the Finance Department of MCGM replied Anil Galgali about 5 types of funds received. 

According to the reply, in the last 4 months Mumbai civic body received a total of Rs 86.05 crore to deal with deadly Covid-19 outbreak. Interestingly, the Mumbai city collector has given Rs 72.45 crore in this fund. It is the largest amount ie 84 per cent of the total funds received. After that, Rs 11.45 crore was given by the Mumbai Suburban Collector. 

While the Ministry of Textiles contributed Rs 50 lakh into the coffer, only Rs 35.32 lakh were contributed by the individuals and other private entities. Moreover, only 7 MLAs have come forward to help BMC who collectively contributed only Rs 1.29 crore. 

Reacting over this apathetic contributions, Anil Galgali said that this fund is negligible as BMC has so far spent more than 700 crore to fight Covid-19 pandemic. "Neither Central government has helped accordingly nor Mumbai civic body has received any financial assistance from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund itself," he said adding that this proves that country's largest city has been left alone to fight its battle. 

Anil Galgali also said that even BMC Commissioner, Mayor, IAS officers and other civic servants have not taken any initiative to raise money for Covid-19 and this could also be a reason why city has received financial assistance from anyone.