The East Delhi Municipal Corporation House today directed the civic body's Commissioner to work on the release of Rs 25 lakh under the Councillors Fund for them to undertake development works in their respective wards.
The issue of Councillors Fund was raised in the House meeting by Standing Committee Chairperson Lata Gupta, after which the Commissioner was directed to work on its release.
The civic body, facing an acute financial crisis has liabilities running over several hundred crores. The dues of employees and welfare pensions alone cross Rs 500 crore-mark, a senior EDMC official said.
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The budget of the cash-strapped civic body made a provision for Rs one crore as fund for each councillor for development works in wards. But due to poor financial condition, the civic body is trying to release Rs 25 lakh fund to each councillor, the official said.
The EDMC House has a strength of 64 councillors. Presently, there are two vacancies and effectively, 62 councillors will get Rs 25 lakh to undertake development works such as maintenance of street lighting, construction and repair and roads and other civic infrastructure in their wards, Leader of the House Ram Narayan Dubey said.
"With EDMC stepping up to boost revenue through collection of taxes and other avenues, we will also arrange another installment of Rs 25 lakh as councillors fund," he said.
In previous years, the councillors were provided Rs 50 lakh fund for development works. They had also been given funds of upto Rs one crore for development work in the "good days" of the civic body, Dubey added.
