Amid fiscal crunch, Mayor calls special House meet today
Mayor Kuldeep Kumar called a special meeting of Municipal Corporation (MC) on Tuesday to discuss the financial problems being faced by the civic body.
During the last MC House meeting held on September 26, BJP councillors had raised the issue of stalled developmental works in the city. One of them, Maheshinder Singh Sidhu had stated that the MC was about to face a deficit of Rs 125 crore this fiscal. The BJP councillors had asked the Mayor to hold a special all-party meeting to find a way out.
Meanwhile, UT Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria also called a meeting on October 24 to discuss allocation for budget to the MC. Facing severe shortage of funds, the MC hasn’t been able to float tenders for development works since May.
The Mayor has been requesting the Administration to release a special grant-in-aid of Rs 200 crore. He has also been demanding an additional grant as the expenditure of the MC has gone up by 121 per cent against a corresponding increase in grant-in-aid to the tune of 70 per cent in the past 10 years. Further, no revenue generating departments have been transferred to the civic body.
With the implementation of 7th Central Pay Commission, the wages of the contractual and daily wage staff have also increased.
MC Commissioner takes charge
Punjab-cadre 2008-batch IAS officer Amit Kumar on Monday assumed charge of the Municipal Corporation Commissioner, nearly two months after Anindita Mitra was relieved of the charge. He will attend the special House meeting on Tuesday.
