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PMC ward offices, departments disobey standing committee’s decision on expenditure
Despite Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) standing committee’s decision to cut down 10 per cent amounts from capital works, ward offices and heads of various departments are not following order
Despite Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) standing committee’s decision to cut down 10 per cent amounts from capital works, ward offices and heads of various departments are not following order.
Now, the chief account of the corporation has instructed all ward offices and departments to follow the order to raise funds for Covid-19. On the other hand, civic activists have raised questions on spending on health infrastructure in the annual budget allocation.
In 2020, PMC had taken a decision to cut down 20 per cent on various developments. Last year, the PMC utilized more than ₹150 crore on the development of health infrastructure related to Covid-19.
In 2021-22, the civic body allocated around ₹350 crore to set up oxygen producing plants and oxygen bed Covid centres, purchasing Remdesivir injection, ventilators, and medicines. Most of the funds were diverted from project works.
When the standing committee has taken decisions to divert big budget development work, ward offices and various departments are utilizing funds on the minor works such as repairing food paths, changing drainage and water lines, changing paver blocks in each ward office area.
Taking cognizance of spending on minors works, PMC chief account has issued an order to all departments and ward offices to consider standing committee decision to cut down 10 per cent development works while floating tenders and carrying out development works.
Ulka Kalsakar, PMC chief accountant officer said, “At present, Covid-19 patients are increasing gradually. The state has imposed a partial lockdown. We need funds to control the Covid-19 and use funds to purchase masks, foods for quarantine patients, to spend funds on purchasing medical equipment and provide medical service. We will have to secure a certain amount of funds so that it can be used for medical emergencies.”
“Standing committee has already given permission to cut down 10 per cent funds on capital work. However, the order is not followed by the ward officers and department heads. So, we have issued orders to keep in mind while issuing tenders, work orders and issuing tender advertisements. We don’t know how much we will need in the future to spend on health related issues, so it is advisable to make financial arrangements right now,” she added.
Civic activist questions spending on health infrastructure
On the other hand, civic activists have raised questions on the spending on health infrastructure by PMC. They have said that PMC is spending crores of the budgets on minor and non-essential work such as changing paver blocks, cement concretisation of lanes, seating benches and footpath repair work instead of health infrastructure.
Vivek Velankar, civic activist said, “Every year, PMC spends crores of funds on non-essential works. This year, the corporation has approved an annual budget of ₹7,500 crore. It is an inflated budget, and they are also using footpath repair and concretization by lanes. It should stop.”
“According to Velankar, due to spending on non-productive work, PMC has embarrassed itself in the high court over the health infrastructure issue.
“PMC lawyer submitted an affidavit in Bombay high court that PMC doesn’t have financial capacity to spend on health infrastructure as compared to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Actually, that is not the case. PMC has enough funds, but they are not using it on infrastructure issues,” he added.
