This story is from January 16, 2018

NMMC spends only 24% of its Rs 3,000 crore budget plan

NMMC spends only 24% of its Rs 3,000 crore budget plan
(Representative image)
NAVI MUMBAI: Of the nearly Rs 3,000 crore budget proposed by NMMC for the financial year 2017-18, only 24% has been spent. This reflects the adverse impact of constant disagreements between the general body and the administration on the momentum of the city’s development, said leaders. The civic administration had projected annual expenditure of Rs 2,986 crore for the current fiscal.
However, as per the accounts department, only Rs 823 crore has been spent till December.
The budget conceived by the then civic chief, Tukaram Mundhe as a road map for the city’s growth for the next five years have seen little development.
Regular disagreements between the general body and the civic administration over passing of crucial development projects have led to the slow spending, said civic sources.
“To pursue any form of developmental work, timely approvals from the general body and release of funds by the standing committee are needed. Owing to the disagreements, key projects have been delayed ,” said a source from NMMC.
Other than the solid waste management department which has spent around Rs 104 crore of the Rs 135 crore allotted, other departments have spend little (see box). The civic health department which was allotted Rs 125.77 crore has spent a meagre Rs 26.49 crore.
However, the engineering department attributed the limited expenditures to the city being already developed and requiring only maintenance work.
“Navi Mumbai is a planned city with all infrastructure in place therefore expenditure is bound to be less. The focus of the department is to maintain the existing facilities. This is why out of the total funds allotted for engineering department, only 20% has been used,” said the city engineer Mohan Dagaonkar.
Of the Rs 376 crore allotted for road works only Rs 65 crore has been used. “The administration is focussing only on earning more revenue resulting in the Rs 2,000cr fixed deposit,” said the local corporator Namdev Bhagat.
NMMC chief, N Ramaswami said that the administration will be spending around Rs 500 crore in the next three months. “One of the reason for limited spending was the lack of clarity on the GST percentage to be included in the tender bids. Now that the issue has been sorted, more works will be undertaken,” said the civic chief.
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