In a major setback to the fund-starved Mohali municipal corporation, the Punjab local bodies department has imposed a ₹31-crore cut in its budget for 2021-22.
Against the proposed budget of ₹148 crore, forwarded in March this year, the department has approved only ₹117 crore.
Notably, no funds have been allocated for solid waste management, Swachh Bharat Mission, and water supply and sewerage maintenance, despite Mohali slipping to the 157th rank out of 382 cities in the 2020 Swachh Survekshan ranking.
The rank had also pushed Mohali to the seventh position in Punjab from the fifth position in 2019 when its nationwide rank was 153.
The city continues to fare poorly in the annual cleanliness survey primarily due to its failure to get garbage-processing projects off the ground, including its solid-waste management project at Samgoli village.
In 2020-2021 as well, the local bodies department had trimmed down the proposed budget of ₹268 crore to ₹127 crore, by slashing ₹141 crore.
“We are passing through severe financial straits. The state government has not approved budget for water supply and sewerage maintenance, and for solid waste management. We are totally clueless about how to tackle the situation,” said a senior civic body official.
MC commissioner Kamal Kumar Garg said they will write to the local bodies department for more funds for 2021-22, so that the development works did not suffer.
{{/usCountry}}MC commissioner Kamal Kumar Garg said they will write to the local bodies department for more funds for 2021-22, so that the development works did not suffer.
{{/usCountry}}After taking charge on April 12, city mayor Amarjeet Singh Sidhu had assured that MC will face no dearth of funds. “We will get more grants from the state government as needed. Development works will not stop in the city,” said deputy mayor Kuljeet Singh Bedi.
Revenue losses last year
While MC had expected to earn ₹28 crore from property tax in 2020-21, only ₹17 crore was paid by residents. Even the excise duty provided by the state government was just ₹12.5 crore against the expected ₹30 crore.
The corporation couldn’t even earn its revenue from unipole advertisements after the state government waived the ₹5-crore fee for six months after six companies cited revenue losses amid the Covid pandemic.
As a result, though the civic body was to earn ₹11 crore, it got only ₹1.42 crore from advertisers, with most not even paying their dues.
On the account of tehbazari fee, MC was to collect ₹60 lakh but earned only ₹32 lakh.