Accounting in civic bodies need to be streamlined: Chavan

Stating that streamlining of accounting process in civic bodies was the need of the hour, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan today said that he would seek information about dues owed by the civic bodies to the government and vice versa.
He told Vinod Ghosalkar and Ravindra Waikar (both Shiv Sena) that the state government owed Mumbai Municipal Corporation Rs 2611.74 crore while the civic body owed the government Rs 419 crore and Rs 162 crore under different heads and the final audit was still on.
Chavan said he had set up a high powered committee for reconciliation of accounts of civic bodies last year. The committee met twice to finalise the accounts of the Mumbai civic body, which was not done for the last three years.

The need of the hour is to streamline the accounting process so that dues are not kept pending, Chavan said and hoped that the accounting process would speed up after computerisation.
The chief minister also said that after he got amended the Development Control (DC) rules, there was a rise of Rs 2,000 crore in the income of the civic body.
He also informed that the government would prepare a policy for permanent allotment of shops in municipal market areas soon.

Replying to a supplementary by Leader of Opposition Eknath Khadse, Chavan said that a policy for permanent allotment of the shops would be prepared after consulting the municipal commissioners.

Meanwhile, in reply to a question by Khadse, he said that the MHADA vigilance cell was investigating the case of 51 of its officers who had gone to Tirupati on a trip sponsored by a private developer two and half years ago.
Action would be taken after the completion of the probe, he said adding MHADA had not suspended the officials but only disciplinary action initiated for violating service rules.
When Khadse pointed out that that action was being taken against only 51 though 400 officers from MHADA, Mumbai Municipal Corporation and Revenue and Urban development departments in Mantralaya had violated norms, Chavan said that the concerned departments were investigating the case separately.