Chandigarh civic body gets Rs 47 crore for July, not full quarterly grant

Sandeep Rana

Chandigarh, July 20

The UT Administration has released Rs 47 crore grant-in-aid (GIA) for July only instead of the full grant for second quarter given to the Municipal Corporation (MC). It has asked the cash-starved civic body to submit all pending utilisation certificates (UCs) against the GIA for the first quarter.

Warning the MC against pending certificates, the administration order states: “In the future, the proposal for release of balance GIA shall not be entertained in the absence of utilisation certificates. Further, the corporation shall undertake measures to increase its own resources for meeting the expenditure and carry out a special drive to curtail expenses.”

The corporation was allocated Rs 560 crore under the Union Budget and got Rs 147 crore from the administration for the first quarter of this fiscal.

“As per the Government of India’s latest financial rule, utilisation certificate is mandatory for the grant, and it will be released in chunks. This could be the reason for the grant having been released for a month this time,” shared an officer.

Facing a severe financial crisis, the MC had been left with only Rs 32 crore and was struggling to pay salaries. The fresh grant will mitigate its financial crunch to some extent. The monthly expenditure of the civic body is Rs 58 crore.

MC warned

Warning the MC against pending certificates, the administration order states: “In the future, proposal for release of balance grant shall not be entertained in the absence of utilisation certificates.”