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KMC seeks reprieve from HC
MUNICIPAL COMMISSIONER Badal Chatterjee is making frantic efforts to get some reprieve from the State Government to present its payment related case before the Allahabad High Court. The High Court is scheduled to hear the petition of the Kanpur Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Thursday.
MUNICIPAL COMMISSIONER Badal Chatterjee is making frantic efforts to get some reprieve from the State Government to present its payment related case before the Allahabad High Court. The High Court is scheduled to hear the petition of the Kanpur Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Thursday.
It may be pointed out that the Allahabad High Court had imposed a ban on all payments to be made by the KMC unless it clear all dues of its pensioners. On a writ petition filed by the pensioners recently, the court had directed the municipal commissioner to deposit Rs 70 crore at Allahabad High Court for clearing pending dues of pensioners.
Directives of the High Court have landed KMC in a piquant situation because it had not been able to distribute salaries to its employees for the month of September. With two festival Diwali and Eid falling in October, it has become all the more pertinent for the KMC to ensure payment of salaries to its employees.
In order to plead the case before the authorities concerned of the State Government, municipal commissioner headed for the State capital early on Wednesday morning. As the municipal commissioner is personally looking after the case, he will also visit Allahabad to attend the hearing scheduled to take place on Thursday.
According to sources as a last resort the municipal commissioner would plead for some concession from the High Court for distribution the salaries in view of the two festivals.
A senior KMC official pointed that the financial crisis at KMC could be mitigated to a large extent if all its pending dues on several government department get cleared.
He further added that only Kanpur Development Authority (KDA) owed Rs 42 crore to KMC and if this amount was cleared then the present financial crisis could be resolved to a large extent.
“But to realise pending dues from government departments is no mean task and only after the intervention of State Government this can be possible,” added the official.
The extent of financial crisis at KMC could also be accessed by the fact that for the past one year contractors had boycotted all tender proceedings in protest against non-payment of pending dues.
It was only last week that contractors after ending the boycott took part in tender proceedings of the KMC.
