Municipality reels under cash crunch

titagarh: the titagarh municipality has been deprived of tax worth rs 1,32,92,661 in the year 2000-2001. a large part of it is due to the industries which have failed to pay up their taxes. some of them have not paid their dues for more than a decade. the result: emplyoees have received their salaries only till may 2001. added to this is the fact that the municipality has to bear the burden of about 100 employees whose appointments have not yet been approved by the government. way back in 1981, about 236 emloyees were taken in by the municipality. they were later made permanent. however, the approval of the government has not yet been received and the already cash strapped municipality took over the burden of paying all these excess staff. with time, most of them retired and got their pensions. about 100-odd ones remain today. the application for legalisation of employment lies with the dlb since the last five years. the total demand of taxes for the year 2000-2001 is rs 1,95,38,507 of which mills and factories is rs 1,89,18,135 and others rs 6,20,372. tax received by the municipality is rs 62,45,846 of which mills and factories is rs 56,90,242 and others is rs 5,55,604. the head clerk of the municipality aggrees that they had to encounter several problems at a point of time due to non-payment of salaries. however, he says that the new board constituted in july last year is trying to solve the problem. "now we are getting regular payments. the arrears are due and the board is looking into that too," he said. ex-chairman bijay pratap chand refused to comment on it passing the buck to the present chairman and the board. present vice-chairman muhammad tarif alam said that they had to take in the extra staff because work was stalled due to a strike by the intuc in 1981. later they could not be removed. "we have applied to the government for approval of the positions of the rest of the staff in 1995. negotiations have reached a positive stage and we are hoping that government will give it's approval very soon" he said. congress sources said that there had been embezzlment of funds which had come from the government on health grounds. this money has not even been entered in the cash books. things have changed since the election of the new board in july. two months' arrears have been met. however, most of the previous appointment have not yet been approved by the government. there are 254 posts in the municipality but 506 employees remain on its payroll. the dlb has refused permission in at least four cases.