Journalism of Courage
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is facing a financial crisis thanks to the inefficient Pune Pattern,Congress leader Aba Bagul said on Wednesday.
The civic commissioner had withdrawn the deposit of Rs 400 crore to use in capital works,Bagul said.
During the Congress rule till 2006-07,the civic body had a balance of Rs 114 crore. But during 2007-08,when the Pune Pattern,an alliance of NCP and Shiv Sena came to power,the civic administration fell short of Rs 113 crore and had to be diverted from next years budget. Due to this,during 2008-09,there was a deficit of Rs 512 crore,which is likely to go up to Rs 800 crore. The development that is being claimed by the parties in power and the civic administration is all unwanted. The city has developed in an unequal way, he said.
During the Congress rule,the financial condition of the civic body was sound and it did not have to take a loan from banks. But in the last two years,PMC had to take a loan of Rs 550 crore,” he said. Bagul said the commissioner used his special powers and withdrew Rs 400 crore for carrying out the capital works.
On Tuesday,it came to light that apart from raising Rs 276 crore loan through banks,the civic administration has now decided to freeze the development works in 2009-10 and pay the outstanding bills of the capital works carried out in the last fiscal.
While the PMC had projected to collect Rs 2,297 crore in 2008-09,it could hardly collect only 70 per cent of it,which stood at Rs 1,582 crore only.
The development expenses during that budget year was Rs 925 crore,66 per cent of the estimated expense of Rs 1,404 crore.
