Ludhiana, January 15
The Municipal Corporation has initiated another attempt to revive the Park Management Committees (PMCs) and bring about improvement in the level of maintenance and upkeep of 400 parks in Ludhiana. As a result of the imbroglio continuing between the civic body and the PMCs for quite sometime now, the parks and green belts had become a picture of neglect.
At a meeting with representatives of the PMCs, the MC Commissioner, Mr S.K. Sharma, made an appeal to them to resume their working in the larger interests of the city. He assured that the corporation on its part would immediately release arrears of maintenance charges without any further delay and would also ensure prompt payments in the future. The representatives, however, insisted that in the wake of increased cost of maintenance, labour and other inputs, they should be paid at the rate of Re 1 per square metre and anything less that that would not be acceptable to them.
On the issue of rate of maintenance charges, Mr Sharma explained that the earlier decision of the corporation to make payment to the PMCs at the rate of Re 1 per square metre was in violation of the government directions and in fact the state government had already initiated disciplinary action against certain officials of the horticulture wing of the civic body for making excess payment to the PMCs. The government in its letter on February 15, 2000, had fixed the rate for maintenance of parks at Re 1 per square metre with a maximum ceiling of Rs 1,000 with the condition that 50 percent of the money would be contributed by the PMCs from out of contributions made by area residents. So the effective rate to be paid to the PMCs for this purpose came out to be 50 paise per square metre with a maximum payment of Rs 500 per month irrespective of the size of the park. Since the PMCs refused to accept these terms, their monthly payments were stopped by the audit department of the corporation from October, 2001, onwards.
Talking to Ludhiana Tribune, Mr Sharma said the civic body had already taken up the matter with the government at the appropriate level. Two resolutions, adopted by the general house and another by the Finance and Contracts Committee to the effect that the PMCs be paid at the rate of Re 1 per square metre on the basis of actual area of the park, had been forwarded to the government. Any fresh decision taken by the government in this connection would be given effect by the corporation. “Till then, the PMCs ought to take up the job at the prevalent rates and if they really do good work, the contributions from area residents will not be difficult to come by”.
