Kolkata Municipal Corporation stops pension payments to employees who retired after September 2021

Besides the pension suspension, the corporation is yet to pay contractual staff and daily wage labourers for the past eight months

The precarious financial condition of the state was again evident when the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) decided to stop the pension of all the employees who retired after September 2021 due to a funds crunch.

On Friday evening, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation gave a notice announcing their inconvenience to give the pension to the employees who have retired after September 2021 because of the fund crunch. Not only the retired employees but the civic body has failed to give money to the daily wage labourers and contract staff for the past eight months.

The situation is such that the KMC authorities cannot say when they would be able to regularise the pension and make payments to the contract labourers and contract staff. "Right now, it is impossible when the financial situation will normalise. We are trying to solve the situation," a senior KMC official said.

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Firhad Hakim, who became the mayor of KMC for the second time, has already informed that the financial situation of the Corporation is not healthy and everyone will have to work with some constraints. Accepting the challenge, he took certain steps to better the financial situation of the corporation. The corporation asked for a loan of Rs 700 crore from the state government and Asian Development Bank gave the corporation a loan of Rs 2,000 crore. Although the corporation was thought to have overcome the difficulties through this, it is evident that it was not enough for the corporation to tide over the problem.

According to financial experts, the financial problem of the corporation cannot be separated from that of the state because the financial condition of the state will inevitably reflect in the financial health of the civic body. The state had taken a loan from the open market for the third time this month.

According to a statement issued by the Reserve Bank of India, the state borrowed Rs 3,000 crore from the open market on Monday -- third time in this month taking the total borrowings to Rs 6,500 crore in this month -- the second-highest state after Uttar Pradesh. Earlier the state had borrowed Rs 3,500 crore in two instalments in this month.

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