Hubballi: With the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC) grappling with fund crunch, not only clearing of the contractors’ bills but also disbursing the salaries of the permanent employees has become an arduous task. Moreover, the government has also not released additional grants after implementing the recommendations of Seventh Pay Commission.
Nearly 1,500 permanent staff of the HDMC have not received their salary for January and February, even when March is also nearing its end. HDMC officials admit that the salary grants meant for the financial year exhausted in December, as the salaries increased as per the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations. In such a situation, the Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) has asked the civic body to bear the additional fund from SFC untied grants, 15th Finance Commission grants and mobilisation of own sources. This has put the HDMC, which is already facing challenge to pay around Rs 120 crore pending contractors’ bills, in a fix.
Leader of House in HDMC Veeranna Savadi charged that the government has kept Rs 290.46 crore under different schemes pending for the HDMC, and this includes Rs 49.49 crore salary grants, interim pay, arrears and additional salary.
Savadi told reporters in Hubballi on Monday that permanent employees from Pourakarmikas to senior officials are not receiving salary, while contractors have already stopped participating in tenders, due to pending bills.
“Memoranda were submitted to chief minister and others, but the demand is not yet fulfilled. We request District In-charge Minister Santosh Lad to arrange a high-level meeting to resolve the issue, by getting the pending grants released and by filing up vacant posts. In the absence of grants, a situation may come to close down the HDMC in a couple of months,” he said, adding that Rs 21 crore is needed to pay the salary of permanent staff for three months.
He said measures like GIS survey and expanding the property tax net have been taken to increase the HDMC’s revenue from its own sources.
Delegation to Guv
Corporator Tippanna Majjagi, who is also the president of BJP’s Hubballi-Dharwad city district unit, stated that an all-party delegation led by the mayor would be taken to the Governor soon, seeking release of pending funds from the government.
“A memorandum will also be submitted to the government through the deputy commissioner, and we will later think about the legal fight,” Majjagi said, adding that the government is suppressing the local body instead of strengthening it, while Santosh Lad also lacks concern about Hubballi-Dharwad.
Savadi said, “We will challenge the government’s move if it tries to supersede the corporation to bifurcate it, as it will curtail the corporators’ right for the five-year term”.
When the HDMC lacked an elected body, works suggested by the MLAs were taken up, and this practice continued even after the formation of the body, he lamented.
Meanwhile, HDMC Commissioner Rudresh Ghali said another proposal seeking additional salary grants would be submitted to the government.