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Pune Cantonment Board staring at financial crisis, projects on hold
PCB CEO said that board received grant of Rs 6 crore from Director General of Defence Estates Office office which will pay salaries for February; no reserves for March salaries
The Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) does not have funds to pay its employees’ salaries for the month of March, Amit Kumar, chief executive officer, PCB, has said.
Kumar said that based on the economic condition of the PCB, the administration is finding it extremely difficult to perform statutory functions, apart from meeting salary commitments as per the Seventh Pay Commission.
Pensions could also be affected in the near term, Kumar said. Besides, the PCB has not paid arrears to the tune of Rs 30 crore which it owes to its employees ever since the seven pay commission came into picture. Arrears are related to the increase in pay which is additional to what the employees were drawing as monthly salary.
“The salary bills per month are estimated to be Rs 7.50 crore and there is no money left to pay our employees their salaries for March. The board is yet to pay Rs 30 crore as arrears to its employees since 2016. We have appraised the Director General of Defence Estates Office repeatedly and during the last one year we have received funds and grants to pay our salary bills. Last week the DG office paid us Rs 6 crore, which will help pay salaries for February. We are expecting a grant of Rs 1-2 crore for March but are still tied over salary payment shortage,” said Kumar.
Kumar said that the PCB cannot carry any more development work as the budget which was Rs 50-60 crore has come down to Rs 12 crore, that includes Rs 7.50 crore for salary bills, pension fund and contractual payments.
Former PCB vice-president and board member Vinod Mathurawala, said that development works have been drastically affected due to lack of funds.
“First we used to get Rs 18 crore as octroi share but after implementation of GST, the funds which are meant for the Cantonment, have not been released till date. Works like laying new water pipelines, stormwater drains, pavement blocks, drainage infrastructure work and other citizen-centric development works have taken a complete backseat. If this situation persists, it would lead to a very bleak scenario where the board will not be able to provide civic amenities to the cantonment residents,” he said.
Despite multiple calls, member of Parliament (MP) Girish Bapat could not be reached for his comment.
Earlier on September 7, 2019, PCB president Major General Navneet Kumar, the General Officer Commanding (GOC), south Maharashtra and Goa sub-area, addressed a press conference and said that the board was going through a financial crisis which had taken a heavy toll on developmental projects. According to him, the crisis has been further aggravated by the non-payment of Rs 150 crore by the state government to PCB as local body tax arrears ever since the revised goods and services tax (GST) became operational in 2018. The PCB’s GST share has been due since July 2017 and due to the absence of these funds, development projects had been hit in Camp.
According to the board, a number of projects had gone on the back-burner as a result of the shortage of funds. The projects affected include a Rs 16 crore commercial complex at Dhobi ghat; construction of staff quarters; construction of multilevel parking facility (Rs 24 crore); replacement of water supply lines(Rs 10 crore); beautification of gardens (Rs 10 crore), among other projects.
Mathurawala said, “We have requested the state government and the centre to pay attention to the deepening financial crisis affecting PCB which is one of the oldest and well known cantonments in the country.”
Former vice-president and elected board member Atul Gaikwad said,“ There are number of problems being faced by the citizens due to lack of funds. We have met the finance minister and we have been informed that only state government can bail us of this crisis. We want the state government to give us our share so that development work is not affected,” he said.
