Indian Express 17.11.2009
Govt nod to civic body to raise Rs 276-cr loan
With the state government on Monday allowing the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to raise a Rs 276-crore loan from any bank, the cash-strapped civic administration expressed relief as it has a number of development projects lined up.
“The state government has given its sanction for the PMC proposal and we would soon call for expression of interest,” a senior civic officer said.
The civic body has been facing financial crunch as the budgetary allocation has been used for paying for the work carried out under JNNURM, he said. “The delay in sanction of funds from the state government for JNNURM projects had created problems and also the recession had affected revenue collection of the civic body.”
Despite resistance from the Opposition party, the PMC general body meeting held in June 2009 managed to approve the proposal of the civic administration to seek Rs 276 crore loan for development works and seeking state government permission.
The Opposition had alleged that there was mismanagement of the finances of the PMC and the loan was to mitigate the crisis and not for the development works.
