Waking up to the realisation that an acute financial crisis could stall ongoing and proposed development works in the city, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has asked all its department heads to furnish financial records of the past three years. There was a deficit of Rs 200 crore in the corporation’s budget last year, having a direct impact on the implementation of the annual budget for the current fiscal.

CASH CRISIS: Officials said that frequent and unplanned transfer of funds to carry out development works that were not even mentioned in the budget led had to the fiscal deficit in the PMC budget last year. Pic/Mohan Patil

The civic body has also asked all departments to suggest at least three new ways to increase PMC’s revenue. This is perhaps the first time that the civic agency has taken such strong steps to control what has become an alarming financial crisis.
“All department heads should compile data of the last three years’ budget, pinpointing how many developmental works the PMC commissioner had proposed in each department, and how much funds the PMC standing committee had actually allocated,” read a notice issued by Addl Municipal Commissioner Rajendra Jagtap.