Tale of mismanaged finances of Chandigarh civic body

Experts pointed out that last month, UT Adviser Dharam Pal, during a meeting with councillors and public representatives on the subject of a proposed water tariff hike, had stated that if they were not being able to manage the finances of the civic body, then they always had the option of dissolving the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. The Adviser then had made it clear that the UT municipal corporation had to generate revenue in order to wade through the financial crunch that it was facing, and hence, a hike in water tariffs was necessitated.

Experts also pointed out that without the grants being received from the Centre as grant-in-aid, it will become difficult for the UT civic body to even pay salaries of its employees. In case a Vidhan Sabha is set up, then the Central aid will cease and additional taxation will need to be imposed on the locals to to sustain the working of the staff as well as the Chief Minister, his mnisters, MLAs. The salaries of all elected representatives and the Vidhan Sabha staff will primarily be dependent on the revenue that is generated from the public.

Major DP Singh (Retd), the former principal of PG Government College in Chandigarh said, that having a second Legislative body in Chandigarh will not be useful at all.

“I feel that a Legislative Assembly for Chandigarh will not be fair or useful to anyone. It will be a very expensive proposition for a small city like Chandigarh with limited resources . The city is already dealing with a bunch of problems, which includes a mountain of garbage that is adversely affecting the health of people. The civic body has not been able to find a solution to the problem. Yet they now want to push for a Legislative Assembly,” Singh said.

“HAVING A LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY WILL backfire”

Vinod Vashisht, convener of City Forum of Residents Welfare Organisations (CFORWO) stated, “ A Legislative Assembly for Chandigarh will add to the tax burden on residents and is primed to misfire. We need to first deliberate and evaluate all single-city governance alternatives before choosing to opt for a new Assembly.”

Vashisht added, “For the last many years, both the Chandigarh civic body and the Chandigarh Administration have been burdening its people with ever increasing taxes, fees, levies and cesses for providing basic civic, citizen and public services. The city is also suffering largely due to its conspicuously absent MP, coupled with a paralysis of local level leadership. As a result many matters concerning Chandigarh remain hanging for years and there is no leader who can influence the Central leadership for the city’s wellbeing and impress upon Central government in financial allocations in the annual union budgets.”

He added that ever since, Chandigarh was converted into a UT in 1996 and deemed as the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, its long term development and sustenance had become a challenge.

“As of now, a Legislative Assembly for Chandigarh will just add to the tax burden on residents. Instead of a Vidhan Sabha, we can look at other alternatives, like enhancing the scope, jurisdiction and powers of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation and opting for direct elections for the Mayor for a full term as is the practice in many local bodies across the country now,” Vashisht said.

CIVIC CORPORATION WAS IN A DEEP FINANCIAL CRISIS

BY 2018

By 2018, the Chandigarh civic body had gone into a deep financial crisis with the corporation at one point even struggling to pay the salaries of its employees.

The pending liabilities — like salaries, pensions, utility bills — which the civic body had to pay for 2018-19 amounted to Rs 492 crore, while the earnings of the corporation was pegged at Rs 171 crore. The total grant-in-aid which it had received from the UT Administration was Rs 267 crore, leaving a deficit of Rs 54 crore. The corporation had passed a budget of Rs 910.76 crore for 2018-19 but had struggled to make payments to contractors for their work.
As a result of the fund deficit, most development work had stalled in Chandigarh, with even the ward development work being put on hold due to a pucity of funds. The then municipal commissioner, KK Yadav, later took matters in his own hands and introduced certain changes to the revenue structure by bringing agendas in the House for enhancing charges or taxes or a hike in water tariff that could help the civic body to tide over the financial crisis. But the situation continues to be grim.

Earlier this year, the civic body passed a budget of Rs 1725 crore while its own predicted receipts were just Rs 616 crore.

COUNCILLORS ASPIRING TO BE MLAs

Most of Chandigarh’s councillors are already aspiring to become MLAs if Chandigarh gets Legislative Assembly of its own. Their hopes have found wings ever since the debate regarding Punjab and Haryana reiterating their claim on Chandigarh had flared.

With BJP in the Centre and also at the helm of the UT municipal corporation, the councillors hope that they can push their agenda and get a new Assembly for the UT.