Chandigarh MC's accounts empty, F&CC to give development works a miss again

Time of India

22-05-2025

Chandigarh: Even as Chandigarh municipal corporation's finance and contract committee (F&CC) is going to take up three agenda items during its meeting on Friday, the city stands to gain little as far as its development works are concerned.
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F&CC's short list of agendas reflects the continuing crisis in the MC, which has been struggling to meet its financial needs amid dried up fund flow.
In a very rare case, F&CC meeting, which is generally a monthly affair, was not held in April as there were no funds with the MC for development works.
While the first agenda is just about confirming the minutes of the last F&CC meeting held in March, another is regarding determining the professional fee of an advocate for a legal case.
The third agenda is about certain works specifically meant for judges' houses in Sector 10.
The agenda list, released late in the evening, features 'Confirmation of the minutes of the 351st meeting of the Finance and Contract Committee held on March 24 2025', 'To determine the professional fee for the advocates in the matters pertaining to the Integrated Command Control Centre (ICCC) to assist the nodal officer in the District and Session Court situated in Tri-city and other courts' and 'to determine the rough cost estimate (RCE) for the work of providing and laying a 4 DI water supply pipeline for newly constructed judges' houses in Sector 10, Chandigarh'.
Sources in the MC, revealed that due to a scarcity of funds, no agenda items related to developmental works are included in the main agenda book of the F&CC meeting. Except for the confirmation of the last meeting's minutes, only emergency works, needed urgently, will be discussed. Moreover, in the near future, there is not much hope for work due to the ongoing financial crunch in the civic body authority.
On March 24, the finance and contract committee gave its nod to the extension of the booking of housing board ground for nine days.
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Providing and planting of trees and shrubs at the dumping ground in Daddumajra at an estimated cost of Rs 32.9 lakh was also approved in the meeting.
This apart, the F&CC approved the proposal for the travel and hotel expenditure of an advocate engaged for defending two high-valued arbitration cases before the arbitral tribunal. Besides, the first meeting of the MC road committee was also held on March 24.