Left with Rs 5 lakh in kitty, Chandigarh MC gets Rs 50-crore breather

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 12

The city Municipal Corporation, which was left with only Rs 5 lakh in fixed deposit (FD) a few days ago, has got a breather with the UT Administration releasing Rs 50 crore grant-in-aid (GIA) for the month of August.

The cash-starved corporation has been asked to submit all pending utilisation certificates (UCs) at the earliest for releasing of the next GIA for the ongoing fiscal.

With this latest grant, the civic body could clear all pending bills of contractors and salaries of outsourced employees, which had got delayed. Recently, MC officials asked the accounts department to release pending dues of contractors and outsourced employees and were shocked to know that the civic body had only Rs 5 lakh left in its kitty.

The monthly GIA goes into paying salaries and meeting committed liabilities. The MC’s per month expenditure is Rs 58 crore. Other than this, some unavoidable tenders like those related to monsoon preparedness, no new tender has been floated for the past two months.

The MC, however, hopes things will be better from the next month as it will get full GIA for the remaining two quarters. At present, it has been getting grant on monthly-basis.

The corporation was allocated Rs 560 crore under the Union Budget and had got Rs 147 crore from the UT Administration for the first quarter on monthly basis.

Besides the GIA, the civic body generates funds from property tax, water bills, paid parking lots and other such resources, which are not enough to meet its own expenses.

The Administration has long been pressing on the civic body to raise funds from its own resources, but little has improved. On the other hand, the MC has been requesting the Administration to transfer to it the Registration and Licensing Authority as well as give its due in road tax, but to no avail.