Old funds unspent, don’t give councillors more: FOSWAC

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 17

The Federation of Sector Welfare Associations Chandigarh (FOSWAC) today asked the MC not to provide additional fund of Rs 1 crore each to councillors as they have failed to utilise their existing ward development fund.

The data released recently had revealed that the most councillors could not spend even about 50 per cent of their funds for development in their wards. For this reason, the federation, which comprises various RWAs, was against giving the councillors more funds.

The matter was raised during the monthly executive committee meeting of the federation today.

“The recent allocation of Rs 1 crore to each councillor is highly deplorable as they had time and again failed to utilise their ward development fund provided by the civic body. What do they need more money for when the existing funds are not being utilised while there is a lot of hue and cry over condition of roads, street lights and sanitation?” questioned FOSWAC chairman Baljinder Singh Bittu.

Sector 38 (West) RWA president Pankaj Gupta added, “More funds should not be given to the councillors as they have failed to exhaust the finances provided to them earlier. The MC should itself use these funds.”

Slamming the councillors, Kamaljit Singh Panchi, adviser, FOSWAC, said, “Only two years are left for the present team’s tenure to end. People will not re-elect the councillors considering the condition of roads in the city.”

About a week ago, the MC has got the nod for Rs 150-crore grant from the UT Administration. During the General House meeting on Thursday, the MC Commissioner had stated that Rs 1 crore would be given to each councillor for their respective wards out of the UT grant.

However, an MC official said the move was aimed at equal work distribution as councillors often complain that work was not being done in their ward.

While most councillors performed poorly on the use of funds, four had a whopping nearly Rs 1 crore unspent finances, which hit the development works in their areas.

Mayor Rajesh Kalia has the highest unspent amount of Rs 1.12 crore. Councillor Satish Kainth is the second-least spender with an amount of Rs 1.05 crore lying unspent. Councillor Rajesh Kumar Gupta also lagged behind with Rs 1.01 crore lying unspent. Councillor Farmila could not spend Rs 99.05 lakh on her ward’s progress.