The City Corporation Mayor and Deputy Mayor have expressed displeasure over the observations made by the Fifth State Finance Commission that the civic body failed to effectively implement schemes in the city.
Reacting to the comments made by the commission, Mayor A.K. Premjam said that the implementation of schemes was affected by the shortage of technical staff, including engineers, in the Corporation. The Local Self Government Institutions Chief Engineer had to approve the schemes. “It was unfortunate that the commission came to such conclusion without considering our views,” she said.
At separate sittings held at the Collectorate, commission chairman B.A. Prakash pulled up the Corporation for poor revenue mobilisation and ineffective implementation of schemes in the city. The Corporation had failed to resourcefully implement its schemes. The civic body showed a tendency of implementing schemes towards the end of the financial year, he said.
However, Prof. Premajam told The Hindu here on Saturday that the commission had no idea about the functioning of the civic body. “Any increase in taxes should go through a procedure, including approval of the council. Besides, the State government never allocated the promised amount for various projects,” she said.
She said that government had advised only in September 2014 to revise the rates for public works, which was in force from April 2012, in tune with those of the Central Public Works Department. “Obviously, the implementation of the works had to be done towards the end of the fiscal,” the Mayor said.
Pension
Deputy Mayor P.T. Abdul Latheef also said that the government had to refund Rs.38 crore to the Corporation for the pension distributed to former employees. An amount of Rs.6 crore disbursed as pension made a dent in the income of the Corporation every year. The government should take over its disbursal.
He also said that the Corporation should be permitted to collect tax for Central government office buildings. As of now, such a rule did not exist. A change in the building permit rules was required to mop up more funds, Prof. Latheef said.
