Chandigarh civic body’s expenses rise, development works slide

CHANDIGARH: The municipal corporation is spending less on developmental works while its expenses are going up in the last five years, according to data.
There has been a major increase in the liabilities, mainly salaries of employees, of the MC, a matter that was even discussed in the monthly general house meeting of the MC recently. “Employees have been hired through outsourcing agencies time and again in the past many years by different departments. In many wings or departments, employees were kept despite there being no demand and only to accommodate people due to various reasons. Employees were recruited in non-required wings and in many cases without any test or criteria. All these factors led to an increase in the financial burden,” said a senior officer of the MC. “Recently, orders were issued to sack employees kept in the MC or given jobs without tests,” he said.
The data of the MC has shown that it has been constantly preparing unrealistic budget to demand grant-in-aid from the UT administration, and ending up receiving less than half of its demand.