By G Babu Jayakumar
Published on March 19,2010:
CHENNAI: Mayor M Subramanian and several Chennai Corporation councillors have put stingy Uncle Scrooge, a Walt Disney character, to shame. The local body keeps enhancing the allocation for the Ward Development Funds and Mayor Special Development Fund, but the worthies just don’t believe in spending them for Chennai’s development. What is more, three councilors have not spent even a paise of their fund share for the past three years.
However, there is one difference. While penny-pinching helps Scrooge McDuck stay as the world’s richest duck, the councilors forfeit the unspent sum at the end of each financial year.
Published on March 19,2010:
CHENNAI: Mayor M Subramanian and several Chennai Corporation councillors have put stingy Uncle Scrooge, a Walt Disney character, to shame. The local body keeps enhancing the allocation for the Ward Development Funds and Mayor Special Development Fund, but the worthies just don’t believe in spending them for Chennai’s development. What is more, three councilors have not spent even a paise of their fund share for the past three years.
However, there is one difference. While penny-pinching helps Scrooge McDuck stay as the world’s richest duck, the councilors forfeit the unspent sum at the end of each financial year.
Over the years, the allocation for each councilor has increased from Rs 7 lakh in 2005-06 to Rs 25 lakh in 2009-10. For the Mayor, the fund went up from Rs 50 lakh in 2005-06 to Rs 2 crore in 2009-2010.
The gross under-utilisation of funds, brought to light through an RTI application filed by activist V Madhav, makes you wonder why the Corporation, in its latest budget, proposed a further hike in the Ward Development Fund for the next year to Rs 30 lakh.
The Corporation’s reply to the RTI application reveals that at least 17 councillors are yet to spend a paise from their kitty for the current financial year.
The mayor spend just Rs 9.71 lakh of the Rs 2 crore he is entitled to till the end of the third-quarter of this year. His past record too has been abysmal: In the first four years of his tenure from 2005-06 to 2008-09 the allotment was Rs 50 lakh a year, so he could spend a maximum of Rs 2 crore. Yet, the mayor spent less than one-fourth of that sum: Rs 45 lakh. In 2006-07, he did not touch the funds at all.
In 2009-10, out of the total outlay of Rs 38.75 crore - Rs 25 lakh for each of the 155 councillors - just over Rs 9.74 crore was utilised during the three-quarters of the year, which amounts to less than 25 per cent. Though the earlier three years saw a tad better utilisation, never was the entire fund spend.
The three councillors who spent zilch in the last three financial years, including the present one, are S Kalavathi (Ward-100), G Ekappan (Ward 101) and S Selvi (Ward 111), all from Zone 7. The councillors who have not any money during the three-quarters of the current financial year in zones I, VI, VII and VIII are: M Govindasamy (Congress), S Venkatesan (DMK), J Krishnamurthy (DMK), S Kalavathi (PMK), G Ekappan (DMK), N Balakrishnan (PMK), A Rajathi (DMK), NM Abdul Majid (DMK), V Ganesan (DMK), S Selvi (DMK), MP Anbudurai (DMK), V Christie (DMK), Saidai P Ravi (A) Rangaramanujam (Congress), SP Viswanathan (Congress), K Jayanthi (DMK), Pushparoot (DMK) and Radha Sambanthan (DMK).
The gross under-utilisation of funds, brought to light through an RTI application filed by activist V Madhav, makes you wonder why the Corporation, in its latest budget, proposed a further hike in the Ward Development Fund for the next year to Rs 30 lakh.
The Corporation’s reply to the RTI application reveals that at least 17 councillors are yet to spend a paise from their kitty for the current financial year.
The mayor spend just Rs 9.71 lakh of the Rs 2 crore he is entitled to till the end of the third-quarter of this year. His past record too has been abysmal: In the first four years of his tenure from 2005-06 to 2008-09 the allotment was Rs 50 lakh a year, so he could spend a maximum of Rs 2 crore. Yet, the mayor spent less than one-fourth of that sum: Rs 45 lakh. In 2006-07, he did not touch the funds at all.
In 2009-10, out of the total outlay of Rs 38.75 crore - Rs 25 lakh for each of the 155 councillors - just over Rs 9.74 crore was utilised during the three-quarters of the year, which amounts to less than 25 per cent. Though the earlier three years saw a tad better utilisation, never was the entire fund spend.
The three councillors who spent zilch in the last three financial years, including the present one, are S Kalavathi (Ward-100), G Ekappan (Ward 101) and S Selvi (Ward 111), all from Zone 7. The councillors who have not any money during the three-quarters of the current financial year in zones I, VI, VII and VIII are: M Govindasamy (Congress), S Venkatesan (DMK), J Krishnamurthy (DMK), S Kalavathi (PMK), G Ekappan (DMK), N Balakrishnan (PMK), A Rajathi (DMK), NM Abdul Majid (DMK), V Ganesan (DMK), S Selvi (DMK), MP Anbudurai (DMK), V Christie (DMK), Saidai P Ravi (A) Rangaramanujam (Congress), SP Viswanathan (Congress), K Jayanthi (DMK), Pushparoot (DMK) and Radha Sambanthan (DMK).
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