GHMC defaults on staff salaries

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation is on the verge of financial bankruptcy.

The civic body has been unable to pay the November salary of employees it has outsourced work to. Besides this, the corporation is yet to clear bills worth `800 crore for various developmental activities in the city.

Municipal corporation officials say that the state government, which had given an assurance that it would release `200 crore every month, has not done so on a regular basis. They say the government has to release about `60 crore for the month of November.

According to sources, the civic body has to clear bills worth `500 crore for the flagship double bedroom housing for the poor in the city and bills worth `90 crore for road repair works. It has to clear bills worth `100 crore for the maintenance and infrastructure work taken up in the city.

The corporation has received a mere `65 crore from Hyderabad Road Development Corp. Ltd (HRDCL). Sources said that the corporation as of now has to clear worth `40 crore.

The sources said that though revenue has increased through the town planning wing for the current financial year, the expenses have also increased for several developmental works. They said that the corporation which used to clear the salaries of outsourcing employees by the 30th or 31st of every month, has yet to clear them due to delay in release of funds from the government.

Besides workers working in circle 14, nobody has received salaries to date for the month of November.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior GHMC official said that due to delay in release of funds from the government, several development activities have been running at snail’s pace. He said that about 46,000 2-BHK houses were to be ready by December but not even 4,000 are ready as bills have piled up for three months.

The official said that besides unpaid salaries, contractors who have not been paid have slowed down the pace of road repair and infrastructure works. bills