Thane Municipal Corporation spent only 65% of allocated funds on infrastructure last fiscal

THANE: A financially wobbly Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has barely spent 65% of the total funds allocated to various departments for infrastructure works in the last financial year.As the corporation gears up to announce its 2014 budget, it is evident that a large portion of allocated funds on capital expenditure last year will lapse on account of non-use, and only a few departments who have ongoing works will carry forward leftover funds from previous year into 2014, a telling reflection on the poor accounting practices followed in the TMC.The Rs 2,500-crore civic body had, in the last financial year, kept aside roughly under Rs 800 crore for capital works, but at the end of the year used up around 65% of this money.Several departments were unable to complete infrastructure works with some of them even using up less than 50% of the allotted money.Senior officials said that while not all funds will lapse, especially those related to ongoing works, the delay has been on account of pending tenders and approvals."We rarely get quick approvals in the TMC and a file has to travel many places before getting a nod. This holds up a project and then money allocated remains unused on several occasions," said a senior official of the TMC.Even as the civic body prepares a modest budget for 2014 with relative or little money apparently to be set aside for capital expenditure, several major departments last year performed poorly on capital works. The public works department, which handles major infrastructure work, was allotted Rs 50,580.7 lakh last year, but used up only 68% of the money or around Rs 34,591 lakh.The town planning department spent only 6% of its allotted funds, which means just Rs 114 lakh of the Rs 1,800 lakh allotted.Other poorly performing departments include security, power, public health, tree authority, town planning, sewerage treatment and gardens. On some major capital works, the percentage of money spent was less than 10%, such as the ongoing Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital, with only 0.92% of the funds being used up."These are big-ticket projects and take many years to complete. Looking at just a year of expenditure on them may not give a clear picture of how the project is shaping up. Having said that, we need to make sure the funds are used up judiciously every year," said a senior official of the civic body.With last year's performance being poor, officials mince no words in stating that budget this year for Thane will be a modest one, with little money being allocated to new capital works."We need to ensure that we first complete all the ongoing works. As it is, our revenue for the year fell short of the targets by a couple of hundred crore, leaving as little or no option to impose some cuts on infrastructure works," said an official.