Fresh devp works halted for now as MC has little money left

Ludhiana: For the past few years, the civic body has been solely dependent on grants being released by the Centre to all urban local bodies. Now that the duration of the 15th finance committee is complete and no more grants will be released, civic officials are wondering how to complete ongoing and approved works. MC commissioner Sandeep Rishi has issued orders to officials of the bridges and road branch and operation and maintenance cell to take approval before preparing estimates of fresh works.
The MC got Rs 91 crore from the 15th finance commission but this year’s grant was cancelled as it failed to show any improvement. Under this scheme, if any urban local body (ULB) fails to perform, its share is divided among ULBs performing well as incentive.
The MC commissioner’s order states that tenders shall not be floated without the approval of the commissioner. “Works which have been tendered out but were pending in the technical advisory committee should be resubmitted to the TAC for clearance. Similarly, no new estimate should be made without the approval of the commissioner,” state the orders.
A senior official said that due to paucity of funds, only urgent work would be taken up now, unless more funds reached the civic body under some other scheme. The situation is such that recovery of pending dues is being done slowly and authorities are struggling to pay salaries to staff on time. Officials said that the civic body does not have any strong source of revenue other than property tax. GST share which comes from the government is not fixed. Officials also said that property tax, water supply and sewer dues are not imposed on each household as some people are exempted.
Over the past decade, the MC has depended on schemes like Smart City Mission, National Clean Air Programme, 15th Finance Commission, Swachh Bharat Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation etc. The civic body is unable to handle maintenance and development works only from its resources because most of the available funds are first used to pay salaries and then cater to expenses like electricity bills etc.