Over sixfold increase in Panipat MC’s sanitation budget in 10 years

Updated on: Aug 27, 2023 10:33 pm IST

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The figures revealed that the annual expenditure of the Panipat MC on cleanliness has reached to ₹40.58 crore from the financial year 2022-23 from ₹6.28 crore in year 2013-14, reveals a reply given by the Panipat MC in response to an application filed by Panipat-based activist PP Kapoor under the Right to Information Act 2005.

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The annual expenditure for the sanitation of the Panipat Municipal Corporation has witnessed a more than sixfold increase in the past 10 years and reached ₹40.58 crore.

The annual expenditure for the sanitation of the Panipat MC has witnessed a more than sixfold increase in the past 10 years and reached <span class='webrupee'>₹</span>40.58 crore. (Shutterstock/ Representational image) — The annual expenditure for the sanitation of the Panipat MC has witnessed a more than sixfold increase in the past 10 years and reached ₹40.58 crore. (Shutterstock/ Representational image)

The figures revealed that the annual expenditure of the Panipat Municipal Corporation on cleanliness has reached to ₹40.58 crore from the financial year 2022-23 from ₹6.28 crore in year 2013-14, reveals a reply given by the Panipat MC in response to an application filed by Panipat-based activist PP Kapoor under the Right to Information Act 2005.

Despite the increase in the expenditure, the Panipat MC has witnessed over 31% decline in the workforce deputed for the cleanliness of the industrial city which has come down to 537 in March 2023 from 775 in 2014. Even the strength of the regular sweepers has come down to 155 in March 2023 from 308 in 2014, whereas the number of the contractual workforce has also reported a decline during this period, and it has come down to 382 from 467.

However, the officials in the Panipat MC claimed that the figures revealed the total expenditure on the sanitation of the city not on the salaries of the workforce as hundreds of initiatives have been taken to keep the city clean.

Rahul Narwal, commissioner to Panipat MC, said, “It (the figures of RTI reply) doesn’t include manpower we engaged through contractual agency. Besides, the manpower there were several other steps being taken under the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, bulk waste generation, plastic usage, sewerage load, common effluent treatment plant with this budget”.