City

In a ‘state’ of despair

Once a body with reserve funds of Rs 550 crore, PMC is now seeking loans to complete its projects. Thanks to the state govt, that has been sitting on JNNURM funds allotted to the civic body

Nitin Brahme

Posted On Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 10:24:51 PM

After Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) projects seem to be rendering the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) poorer by the day.

Last week, PCMC commissioner, Ashish Sharma informed that in order to complete the JNNURM projects, PCMC was going to take a loan of a whopping Rs 600 crore. Now, PMC will follow suit. The civic body does not have enough funds to complete projects started under the JNNURM scheme, therefore, it approached the state government for an approval for taking loan.

After the request for a loan taking of Rs 276 crore was approved by the state government, the PMC will now take a loan from world funding agencies as well as from the domestic market.

Nilesh Nikam, chairman of PMC’s standing committee, admitted that PMC won’t earn much from the octroi this year, due to the recession and therefore, the civic body will have to depend on loans to complete its development work.

“PMC has a budget of Rs 3,000 crore but the expected income stands at around Rs 2,000 crore. The body will require additional funds and hence, we have already given an approval for seeking a loan.”

Vivek Velankar, president of Sajag Nagrik Manch, said, “Under the JNNURM, the central government allotted Rs 644 crore to PMC and released it to the state government. However, the state government has given only Rs 606 crore to PMC so far.

If the state’s contribution under the JNNURM scheme is added, the state government owes PMC another Rs 190 crore. In addition to this, the state government withheld its approval on PMC’s loan request for five months.”

Velankar received this information in response to an RTI.

Ujjawal Keskar, PMC’s senior corporator has demanded a white paper on PMC’s economic condition. Keskar said that the JNNURM scheme was for corporations not capable of developing infrastructure on their own.

But, this is leading PMC towards bankruptcy. Once PMC had reserve funds of Rs 550 crore and today it requires loans.

Pravin Ashtikar, officer on special duty, JNNURM cell, PMC, said that PMC has sent a Rs 1000 crore utilisation plan to the Centre and currently, 13 JNNURM projects are going on.

Effect on you
If PMC takes a loan, it will need to generate extra funds for the repayment. This might lead to an increase in taxes like property tax, water tax and octroi. Any increase in octroi, will mean that fuel prices may go up, leading to an increase in prices of essential commodities

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