Municipal committees, councils accuse govt of not providing funds
Srinagar, Dec 23 : Newly elected municipal committees and councils in Kashmir Sunday accused the government of not providing funds and other facilities required for development of wards.
The local bodies have decided to approach Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Governor S P Malik to seek help in this regard, Anantnag Municipal Council chairman Hilal Ahmad Shah told reporters here.
The decision was taken at a meeting of chairpersons of various municipal committees/councils of Kashmir province in Srinagar, he said.
Shah, who is also the general secretary of J-K Pradesh Congress Committee, said the meeting expressed dismay and displeasure over the attitude of the government towards the newly constituted municipal committees/councils.
“Braving extremely volatile situation in the valley, we participated in the electoral process to ensure development of people at grassroot level.
“However, it is anguishing that the government has not been able to provide funds and other facilities required for development of wards to municipal committees/councils, particularly in respect of sanitation, construction of lanes, drains, hygiene, shifting of garbage from interior and main roads, manpower etc,” he said.
The Anantnag Municipal Council chairman said the government must ensure all the facilities required for overall sanitation in wards for which the municipal committees/councils were constituted after the urban local bodies polls.
He said the committees were hardly able to provide salary to their employees out of the revenue collected.
“We urge the government to provide funds at the rate of Rs 2 crore to every councillor enabling him/her to do the job for which he or she has been chosen by the people, till the funds that are in the pipeline are released to municipal committees,” he said.
