At this time, the Municipal Corporation has become penniless due to which the development of the city has stopped and the corporation is also facing a challenge in paying salaries to its employees, whereas till ten years ago, the Municipal Corporation used to have FDs worth Rs 500 crore. But now the situation is such that the Municipal Corporation itself is thinking of taking a loan.
The Municipal Corporation itself is responsible for the condition it has reached because the Municipal Corporation is not able to recover its dues. A big negligence of the Municipal Corporation has come to light. In the last 28 years, compensation for the acquired land of the Gram Panchayat has not been recovered due to which a loss of about Rs 31 crore has been incurred.
Irregularities revealed in the audit report
Regarding this matter, irregularities have been revealed in the audit report of the Director Accountant General (Central) Office. The audit department has sought a report from the Nagar Nigam on the reasons for not taking compensation for so many years. According to the report, between the years 1996 and 2018, the UT administration first transferred one, then 9 and then 13 villages to the Nagar Nigam.
After this, the Nagar Nigam was given the responsibility of developing these villages and raising revenue. The Nagar Nigam had the right to collect property tax, approve building plans and receive compensation for the acquired land. But despite 28 years having passed, the Nagar Nigam has not started any process to collect compensation. The compensation for the acquired land of Maloya village amounts to about Rs 31.79 crore.
An amount of Rs 7.05 crore was deposited in the Punjab National Bank in the year 2004, on which this amount would have exceeded Rs 20 crore with interest in 20 years.
The remaining amount of Rs 24 crore has been deposited by the administration in the court about three years ago, but the Nagar Nigam has not taken any step to take it despite so many years having passed. According to the audit report, a lot of interest would have been added on the compensation amount in the last 20 years, but the Municipal Corporation did not show any interest in recovering it. If the Municipal Corporation had taken action on time, this amount could have increased manifold.
Correspondence between the Municipal Corporation and the Land Acquisition Officer started in the year 2023 but no concrete action has been taken yet. Information related to the date of acquisition and demarcation of the Gram Panchayat land is also not recorded in the records of the Municipal Corporation. This audit report has been taken by RK Garg under the Right to Information.
Difference in supply and billing
The Municipal Corporation has a huge loss in the supply of water from the city. Every year the Municipal Corporation has a loss of Rs 100 crore from the supply itself. There is a lot of difference between the water supply that the Municipal Corporation is getting from Kajauli Water Works and the billing it receives from the people.
For the last two years, the Municipal Corporation has not been able to allot the city parking to run, due to which there has been a loss of revenue of about Rs 15 crore.
The audit department has found a huge difference between the water supplied to the Nagar Nigam and its billing, due to which the Nagar Nigam has suffered financial loss. In the audit report, the billing of a total of 33 crore 34 lakh 55 thousand kilolitres of water has been found to be less. At present, the Nagar Nigam has to collect more than 100 crore rupees from property tax defaulters, in which the major dues are on government departments.
RTI activist RK Garg said that it is surprising that despite collecting all kinds of taxes from the city residents, the condition of the Nagar Nigam is bad. Actually, there is a huge lack of planning in the Nagar Nigam.
At present, paver blocks worth more than 200 crores are installed in the city, which were not needed. Many such wasteful expenditures have been made in the past years.
The Nagar Nigam has not been able to collect its dues of crores of rupees from the government departments, which has been revealed in the audit department. After acquiring the land for compensation, why did the administration not pay the amount to the Municipal Corporation and instead went to court and why did the Municipal Corporation not ask for the compensation amount for so many years, this should be investigated.
