Congress seeks white paper on MC financial condition

The Congress has asked the Municipal Commissioner to immediately issue a white paper on the precarious financial condition of the Municipal Corporation (MC) and expose the people responsible for the crunch.

Expressing the party’s deep concern at the wastage and dissipation of the reserve MC funds between 2016 and 2023, Rajiv Sharma, chief spokesperson for the city Congress, has stated that the residents need to know as to how the BJP councillors and Mayors have ruined the financial condition of the MC during this period to the extent that the corporation was forced to stop all development works, first in 2017 and again in 2023.

The party spokesperson claims that the MC had a fixed deposit of Rs 500 crore in 2015, which was not only spent on wasteful expenditure in next few years but the corporation was put under an additional debt of nearly Rs 500 crore, which is to be returned with interest by imposing taxes on the people of the city. He alleged that all this happened when the BJP was at the helm in the MC. The people of the city must know who is responsible for depleting the MC resources, which could boast of a reasonably sound financial health until 2016.

The Congress also criticised the Chandigarh Administration for denying the legitimate claim of the MC for allocation of funds to undertake its civic functions. The share of the Municipal Corporation comes out to be above Rs 1,700 crore out of the total budget of the UT, which is pegged at Rs 6,513 crore this year. While the corporation undertakes the major civic works such as recarpeting roads, street lighting, sanitation, solid waste management, maintenance of parks and horticulture, it was arbitrarily given only Rs 560 crore by the Administration, which is less than 10% of the total budget of the UT. This is an unjustly inadequate sum against the State Finance Commission’s recommendation to pay 30% of the total budget to the civic body.

The Congress has appealed to the Municipal Commissioner to place all these facts before the residents and identify the reasons that led to the current financial crisis in the Municipal Corporation, so that immediate remedial measures can be taken to save the city’s civic life.