Services a mess, but BMC sits on Rs 61,510 crore cash pile

MUMBAI: Hold your breath, Mumbaikars, it can now finally be revealed. Your municipal corporation, known more for its inept and poor service delivery, and largely responsible for the city’s decrepit condition, is sitting on a

cash

pile currently worth an eye-popping Rs 61,510 crore.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (

BMC

) has parked this humungous stash in fixed deposits in 31 banks (including four private ones) as of January 31, 2017. The annual

interest

itself works out to over Rs 4,500 crore, given the average interest rate of 7.41%.

If the civic administration were to equally distribute this amount among the 12 million people living under its jurisdiction, each resident will receive Rs 51,250.

TOI has ferreted out this data from the municipal finance department to give a perspective about the BMC’s phenomenal wealth at a time when civic

services

have deteriorated and civic infrastructure i s crumbling due to inefficiency and corruption. This is also why political parties are so desperate to control the cash-rich corporation.

According to the finance department figures, the largest single deposit of Rs 8,581 crore is in one bank alone (Corporation Bank). It largely prefers PSU banks, but puts smaller amounts of Rs 300 crore-Rs 500cr in private banks. “Every day we invite quotations from banks. The bank which offers the best interest rate gets the money,” said a municipal accountant, adding the fixed deposits are for periods of 12 months to 15 months.

Of the total deposits of Rs 61,510 crore, the provident fund and pension fund of municipal employees aggregates Rs 10,455 crore. A surplus fund of Rs 10,927 crore also constitutes the total deposits. The civic special funds form the largest chunk of Rs 34,258 crore. The BMC’s biggest cash flow comes from

octroi

collection -- around Rs 12 crore a day.

“Is the BMC an investor financing banks or a service provider?” a highly-placed civic official wondered, alluding to the shoddy services India’s richest municipal corporation provides to its residents.

The politicians who rule the BMC are always keen on revenue expenditure, which allows them to shower largesse by way of recruitments and operational costs, said officials. “The corporation has become like an employment guarantee scheme for many. It’s a culture of entitlement and little commitment to improving delivery systems,” they said.

Take for instance, the city’s roads. In the past three years, the BMC has spent Rs 9,000 crore to repair, resurface and cement concrete roads. Civic sources said 80% of this is shoddy, inferior quality work because of unscrupulous road contractors who are hand-in-glove with civic engineers and contractors. Last year, over two dozen municipal engineers and contractors were arrested following a police probe into the multi-crore road repair scam. A BMC inquiry exposed how contractors tasked with building superior cement concrete roads had dug barely 25cm to 30cm deep when they were stipulated to dig up to 85 cm. For mastic roads, the requirement was to dig only up to 12 cm. “But records showed that on paper they were digging as much as 80 cm to get more money,” said a civic official.

Unfortunately, big money does not translate into better planning or accountability towards citizens. For a city that aspires to be on the global map, the sheer incompetence of the civic administration is dragging it down. “It is political and administrative failure,” admitted a senior official, not wishing to be identified.

As an example, Mumbai disgracefully discharges a humungous 2,700 million litres of untreated sewage waste into the sea every day because the BMC has no modern sewage treatment plants. This has messed up the city’s coastline and its marine environment. At present, only roughly 600 million litres of sewage is treated daily. It is only recently that the BMC decided to set up six sewage treatment plants for tertiary treatment of sewage at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore at six different locations in the city.

For garbage disposal, Mumbai still depends on landfills, an outdated concept which is dangerous for sub soil and public health. The world over, cities now scientifically treat waste.

Other big-ticket civic projects funded by the BMC include the coastal road (Rs 14,000 crore), Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (Rs 1,300 crore), and converting waste into energy at Deonar dumping ground (Rs 1,000 crore).