more-in The civic body has given impetus to the preservation of parks and trees. Horticulture, lakes and forests have together got an 812% increase in allocation over the previous year’s budget. While the 2016-2017 budget allocated ?153.15 crore to these departments, this year, the amount is ?1397.59 crore. Development of 210 parks will be taken up in newly added zones at a cost of ?40 crore. Tanks for irrigation, rain water harvesting and manure pits have been earmarked for all BBMP parks. Citizens have been encouraged to participate in protecting roadside trees by becoming tree wardens. Ten lakh saplings will be planted under citizen partnership programmes. ?300 crore for storm water drains ?300 crore has been earmarked for construction and maintenance of storm water drains (SWDs) in Hebbal, Koramangala, Challaghatta and Vrishabavathi valleys. ?89.5 crore has been earmarked for development of lakes and another ?50 crore to establish sewage treatment plants to prevent sewage from entering lakes. Naresh Narasimhan, Citizens for Bengaluru, says, “The allocation for SWDs is far too less. It will just cover 10% of the SWD network. Without separating sewage drains from SWDs, there is no point spending money on lake rejuvenation.”

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