MARGAO
The Margao Municipal Council has finally started clearing the salaries of the regular municipal employees on day six of the month, but the civic body has a clear task cut out – to arrange funds to the tune of around Rs 60 lakh to credit the wages of the daily wage workers and effect payments to the two private agencies engaged for the door-to-door waste collection.
The salary bill of the regular employees is pegged at around Rs 1.60 crore. The long wait of the regular employees finally ended on Monday after the civic body tapped the salary reserve fund amounting to around Rs one crore with government approval. The civic body could arrange the balance amount of Rs 60 lakh as its coffers received revenue through construction license fees in the last few days.
Having credited the salaries of the regular employees, civic officials pointed out that the task ahead is to arrange funds to meet the wage bill amounting to around Rs 38 lakh. Civic officials said that it may take a couple of days before the municipality clears the wage bill of the daily wage workers.
However, if sources are to be believed, the two private agencies engaged in the door-to-door waste collection will have to wait for some time before their workers get their wages.
Civic officials in the know said that after crediting the wages of the daily wage workers and the payments of the door-to-door waste collection agencies, the MMC will be required to recoup the salary reserve fund.
“The municipality has managed to pay the salary bill by tapping the salary reserve fund. As per the norms, the civic body needs to recoup the reserve fund to meet future emergencies,” remarked an official.
The official, however, has warned that the delay in the payment of salaries is a wake-up call to tone up the revenue recovery and mop up additional revenue.
“The civic body has a task cut out to recoup the salary fund and mop up revenue for the payment of salaries for March,” the official added.
Chief Secy, Urban Development Secy's intervention sought to salvage MMC
MARGAO
With the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) facing a financial crisis as evidenced by the delay in the disbursement of salaries to its workers, former MMC chairpersons on Monday sought the intervention of the Chief Secretary and the Urban Development Secretary to salvage the civic body from sliding into total bankruptcy.
Charging the MMC for indulging in wasteful expenditures, former chairpersons Savio Coutinho, Ganeshyam Shirodkar, Johnson Fernandes and former vice-chairperson Joao Gonsalves came down heavily on Margao MLA Digambar Kamat, whom they charged of being responsible for the present situation of the council.
Addressing the media, Coutinho alleged that the council’s waste management system has turned out to be the biggest cause for the drain-off of the municipal treasury.
“Even after Rs 30 lakh is spent every month on the two contractors towards the segregated waste collection, there’s not a single kilogram of compost derived, thus proving beyond doubt that no treatment of wet waste is happening at Sonsodo. The fresh tender process of the door-to-door waste collection will now cost Rs 48 lakh per month, as compared to the present Rs 30 lakh per month," he informed.
Coutinho has listed a host of factors responsible for the present financial ill health.
Former chairperson & councillor Ganeshyam Shirodkar demanded that officials of the Urban Development Ministry visit the council or depute its officers and verify the shoddy affairs of the MMC. He said that the revenue collection during the period of January to March normally comes in handy for the outgoings during Monsoon, adding “If in February the situation has resulted in a shortage of funds to pay salaries, then worse days are yet to be seen.”
Ganashyam said the council has the potential to be self-sufficient and need not go with a begging bowl to the government for funds now and then. He firmly stated that the government should turn down the requests of the council for grants, and instead issue strict directions to recover all pending dues first.
They pointed out that they will officially write to the Chief Secretary and Urban Development Minister Vishwajit Rane demanding their intervention in the shoddy deeds of the council.
