Urban News

“The development work under JNNURM was complete but the government had not given the money. The release of Rs 47 crore has ensured that there are no pending dues from the government,” said standing committee chairman Arvind Shinde.

The amount received includes Rs 26.44 crore spent on Commonwealth Youth Games and Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), Rs 4.5 crore for river development, Rs 33 lakh for subway on Ahmednagar Road and Rs 16.20 crore for purchase of buses.

The PMC has so far completed work worth Rs 725 crore that was enlisted in the detailed project report (DPR), Shinde said adding the expenditure on the work under JNNURM so far have been Rs 1,100 crore. Shinde said the credit for getting the pending dues goes to Congress as the party leaders were continuously following it up.

Shiv Sena legislators Mahadeo Babar and Chandrakant Mokate said they too had raised the issue of pending dues in the state Assembly wherein the government has assured to disburse the fund. “The Congress should not take all credit as there was contribution from leaders of all political parties,” they said.

Meanwhile, the standing committee members have decided to undertake visits to the work being done under JNNURM.

“There have been complaints of contractors keeping the work incomplete. We have been working hard to get the proposals approved from the state government and also continuously follow up to get the money for the projects. It was time for us to take stalk of the work being done,” said corporator Ujjwal Keskar.

There is need to be more careful while spending money received by the civic body under JNNURM, he said adding that it recently came to focus that PMPML had made changes in the norms approved in the detailed project report for purchase of buses.