Cash-strapped PCB presents Rs 250 crore budget

The Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) which is staring at a fiscal crisis, on Monday, proposed a Rs 250 crore budget for the current fiscal year.

The Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) which is staring at a fiscal crisis, on Monday, proposed a Rs 250 crore budget for the current fiscal year.

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PCB chief executive officer Amit Kumar said the budget included provision of central funds of the ongoing infrastructure development projects in the cantonment, and also includes a special provision of Rs 20 crore which is meant to be paid as arrears to the employees as part of the Seventh Pay Commission, due since 2016. Also a special allocation of Rs 2.50 crore has been made for Covid-related expenditure.

The board had proposed a budget of Rs 167 crore last year.

“We have sent the budget to the Principal Director General of Defence Estates Office for approval. The budget emphasises development works and a separate Covid-related budget. Besides this, we need to pay arrears to our employees for which we have sought Rs 20 crore. The final budget will be approved by Command headquarters,” said Kumar.

Kumar said that the budget has been increased as curtailment of funds from the vetting authorities’ results in issuance of lesser funds for the cantonment board.

During the meeting Kumar told the finance committee members that the budget has been prepared, “taking into consideration the bankruptcy of the board”.

According to the budget, Rs 10 lakh will be spent on sanitising tunnels, hands-free sanitising mechanism, jet spraying fogger, service robots, screening robots, automatic sanitiser machine and training programmes for carrying out Covid related work.