MARGAO
Time is ticking for the Margao Municipal Council to arrange funds with just a day left to credit the salaries of the civic employees and daily wage workers amounting to around Rs two crore.
Reason: As of Monday evening, the municipal treasury was left with hardly Rs 20 lakh while the salary bill is pegged around Rs two crore, throwing up a host of questions in the corridors of the civic body “ how and from where will the municipality arrange the required funds to clear the salary and wage bill?
Hopes that the government will bail out the civic body by sanctioning the pending grant in aid, around Rs 1.5 crore, did not materialize on Monday, with the civic body receiving no communique from the office of the Director of Municipal Administration for the release of grant in aid.
Civic officials and City Fathers now pin their hopes on Margao MLA Digambar Kamat to use his good offices with the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and the Urban Development officials to bail out the civic body by issuing the sanction order for the grant in aid.
A civic official pointed out that since the municipality had sent the correspondence to the Urban Development Ministry for the release of the pending salary grant in aid, intervention by the Margao MLA with the government can help save the day for the BJP-ruled Margao Municipal Council from facing a major embarrassment.
Both the Margao Municipal chief Damu Shirodkar and Chief Officer Manuel Barretto were in the State capital on Monday. It could not be ascertained whether the duo was in Panaji in connection with the salary issue or some other official work.
Chief Officer Barretto, however, conceded late Monday that the MMC coffers have no sufficient funds to credit the salaries and wages of the municipal employees and workers on Tuesday.
He said the government’s order sanctioning the salary grant in aid has also not come on Monday while saying he would discuss the matter with the civic chief Damu Shirodkar and concerned MMC officials how to go about arranging the funds.
While the Margao municipality had in the past tapped the salary reserve fund to disburse the staff salaries and wages, sources in the know wondered whether the civic body will resort to such a move given that the fund was tapped in the last couple of months to arrange funds to meet the salary bill.
This is the first time in recent months that Margao civic employees and workers are keeping their fingers whether they would receive their pay on the last day of the month on February 28.
Officials in the know pointed out that the MMC salary bill itself are pegged at around Rs 1.5 crore, adding that the payments of wages to the daily wage workers and the door-to-door waste collection contractors work out to another Rs 50 lakh.
