The face of Sangareddy is to change for the better. All the unauthorised road side shops were removed on the main road as well as on the bypass road. Efforts are on to widen the road to four-lane as it is declared a national highway. The six-kilometre stretch road from Pothireddypally Chowrastha to Mahaboobtan would have a beautiful divider with LED lights and plants. These are the plans in store for the district headquarters.
Though the financial health of the Sangareddy municipality is deteriorating by the day and ringing alarm bells among officials, a serious effort is put in place by the district administration to streamline the activities and arrest the expenditure and reduce the costs.
With about 80,000 population and 13,428 households, the municipality is spread in 31 wards. For the current year, the property tax due is Rs. 2.91 crore, and so far only Rs. 90 lakh is collected, and it is expected that another Rs. 1 crore would be collected by the month-end. Similarly, the water tax due is Rs. 1.98 crore, and so far the collected amount is only Rs. 55 lakh. Out of the Rs. 34 lakh due from trade licences, only Rs. 10 lakh is collected.
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The other revenue resources include Rs. 9 lakh from advertisements. While the total revenue being generated by the municipality per annum stands at Rs. 4.89 crore, the expenditure is touching about Rs. 8 crore, which includes - wages for sanitation and workers Rs. 3 crore, water works maintenance Rs. 2 crore and power bills Rs. 3 crore.
The situation is so pathetic that the municipality is unable to pay the wages for labour and clear power bills. According to sources, officials are unable to get a correct figure as the records are not properly being maintained.
For instance, the postal department and BSNL have to pay an amount of Rs. 22,78,343 as arrears and for the current year the amount by both the organisation as property tax is Rs. 2,33,042 and it comes to a total of Rs 25,11,385.
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Similarly, the State government departments like Education, DRDA, SP office, RDO office, Zilla Parishad (about 15 offices) have to pay arrears to the tune of Rs. 1,07,99,921 while the current year tax is Rs. 27,00,215 and the total amount is Rs. 3,41,79,049.
After recently taking additional charge of municipality, Additional Joint Collector Dr. Vasam Vekateswarlu has started streamlining the activities by trying to make everything online. As part of the initiative, a website - www.sangareddymunicipality.in - will be ready in a full-fledged manner by the month-end.
“We have to increase our revenues and reduce the costs.
That is as the only we can survive and meet our expenditure. The main road in the town would be expanded by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) with 10 feet each on either side, with road divider for the five kilometre stretch from Pothireddypally chowrastha to the end of Sangareddy town. Even butterfly lights with LED bulbs are proposed,” Mr. Venkateswarlu told The Hindu .