Deccan Chronicle 25.01.2010

Local body spent Rs 1 lakh on soap

Jan. 24: The Injambakkam local body has spent Rs 1,01,521 for purchasing soap and oil between 2007 and 2009. This startling figure was revealed in a response to an RTI petition regarding expenditure borne the Injambakkam panchayat over the last four years.

The long list of expenses furnished by the Injambakkam panchayat, a copy of which is available with this newspaper, reads more like ‘Ripley’s Believe it or Not’ and has left the residents who had sought the expenses’ list nonplussed.

The panchayat officials also claimed that they had spent over Rs 2,00,600 for renting cows over the last four years. Members of the Rajan Nagar and Selva Nagar Welfare Association wonder what was the purpose of spending over Rs 2 lakh for renting cows in a posh locality where real estate prices have sky rocketed over the recent years.

“This is clearly indicative of the mismanagement that has taken place in handling funds in the panchayat. If the money spent by the panchayat on various amenities like road repair and fixing streetlights are true, then residents here should have no problems. But, we are some of the most neglected lot,” say locals.
According to the expenditure list, the local body has spent Rs 3,00,17,612 for road repair and Rs 41,22,110 repairing and maintaining streetlights between 2005 and 2009. “If the money was actually spent on repairing roads and street lights, all our commuting woes would have ended,” said Mr Pon. Thangavelu, secretary of the Rajan Nagar and Selva Nagar Welfare Association.

According to the officials, Injambakkam has 27 kilometers of roads and over 900 streetlights and 322 sodium vapour lamps.