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Mayor briefs UT Administrator on civic body’s finances, seeks immediate support

The Mayor raised some key issues, including road infrastructure
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UT Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria and Mayor Harpreet Kaur Babla at the Advisory Council meeting in Chandigarh on Tuesday.
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Mayor Harpreet Kaur Babla today met UT Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria and raised various key issues pertaining to the larger public interest and urged for strengthening the financial position of Municipal Corporation (MC) as well as welfare of its employees. The Mayor briefed the Administrator that the civic body has been playing a crucial role in maintaining and developing the city’s infrastructure, ensuring sanitation and providing essential public services on a no-profit, no-loss basis but still facing severe financial crunch.

“The MC remains highly dependent on grants-in-aid from the UT Administration,” she said, adding that while the civic body generates some revenue through property tax and water bills, the funds are insufficient to cover the increasing costs of maintaining civic amenities in the city.

The Mayor raised some key issues, including road infra, saying, “The MC maintains 2,000 km of roads, including major and internal roads, as well as parking lots. 270 km of roads are constructed or repaired annually to ensure smooth traffic movement, yet no direct revenue is generated from this work.”

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The civic body, she noted, also maintains 1,800 neighborhood parks, over 100 large parks, and green belts, along with 1.75 lakh trees and bushes and was responsible for garbage processing and sterilisation of stray animals.

Funding shortfall,

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cost-cutting measures

The Mayor further said the civic body has received only

Rs 560 crore in grant-in-aid for the 2024-25 financial year, against a demand of Rs 1,651 crore despite its expanding responsibilities.

Highlighting some cost-cutting measures, she said the MC was reducing outsourcing staff, minimising vehicle and event expenses, reducing expenses for General House meetings by 50%, and voluntary surrender of 50% entertainment expenses by senior officers.

Babla urged for urgent additional grant of Rs 170 crore to meet salary, pension, electricity bills, fuel costs, and other essential expenditures before reiterating the MC’s commitment to serving the residents.

The Mayor said the Administrator assured full support from their end and directed the officers concerned to convene the meeting to discuss the civic bdoy’s finances.

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