Chandigarh to release Rs 30-cr grant for 13 villages

Chandigarh, January 15

In a major relief for the Municipal Corporation (MC), the UT Administration today gave in-principle approval to provide Rs102 crore to the civic body for development of 13 villages, which were merged with it in 2019.

Meanwhile, the Administration today released a grant-in-aid of Rs100 crore to the MC. The grant will be used for paying salaries to employees, meeting routine expenses and for maintenance work.

RLA to share revenue with MC

• To enhance the revenue of the civic body, the UT Administration agreed in-principle to share the revenue of the Registering and Licensing Authority (RLA) with the Municipal Corporation.
• “We will start getting revenue from the RLA from April 1 onwards and it will give a big boost to the MC,” said Mayor Ravi Kant Sharma.

Mayor Ravi Kant Sharma today met Manoj Parida, Adviser to the Administrator, UT, and discussed various issues of revenue generation for the cash-strapped MC.

The Mayor said the Administration would release Rs30 crore special grant for the development of 13 villages up to March 2021, of the total Rs102 crore approved. However, of the total amount, Rs60 crore would be released during the next financial year in a phased manner and Rs12 crore would be incurred by the UT Engineering Department on development works in these villages.

Meanwhile, Rs80 lakh has been assured as ward development fund for each councillor, said the Mayor, and added that the Administration would get the seven community centres in the city completed through the Engineering Department before May 2021.

He said the Adviser also gave assurance regarding early completion of the work on underground parking in Sector 8 and Sector 17.

For revenue generation, the MC had been assured of permission for exhibitions at the Kala Gram ground. He said they had also been assured of permission for provision of a banquet hall in Industrial Area, Phase I.

The Administration had also agreed to enhance the number of unipoles from 24 to 75 to generate revenue for the cash-strapped MC.

Besides, two additional petrol pump sites would be allotted to the MC to generate revenue. — TNS

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