Jalpally civic body fund crunch hits devpt works

Rangareddy: Having no funds for years and lagging behind in property tax collection, the fund crunch Jalpally municipality went into huddle with the councilors on Tuesday sans any development ideas to execute. The 28 member council, presided over by the Chairman AbdallahSadi on Tuesday, concluded without delivering any proactive development initiatives to usher progress in Jalpally, an area considered as the most backward and impoverished municipality among all the 16 ULBs of the Rangareddy district.

It is learned that the meeting was concluded soon after discussing meager issues like maintenance of manholes, BT patch work at ErraKunta, sanitation and arrangements for upcoming festivals. It is said that Rs.65 Lakh will be spent on securing manhole caps to avoid over flow of the sewerage and to avoid incidents. Besides, patch work will be taken up at ErraKunta road by spending Rs.8 lakhs out of a total allocation of Rs.20 lakhs.

As no further agendas were placed before the council, the Chairman sought adjournment of the meeting.

With an estimated over a lakh population, the Jalpally municipality placed a total demand of over Rs.7.2 crores fixed for the financial year 2023-24. However, the total tax collection narrows down to a mere 33 percent by March 2024. This comes after a similar below the mark performance of 43 percent collection last financial year.

While the officials are of the view that the development works can be taken up only when sufficient funds and revenue from property tax collection are available to take the decisions freely, the local people say not even the basic infrastructure like water, sanitation and sewerage lines are being provided in many of the wards.

“Basic amenities like roads, sewerage and water supply in many of the wards are still a distant dream in Jalpally. Sanitation too was confined to once in a week sweeping that to close at religious structures. Besides, water cloggings during the rainy season in different areas are a common scene here,” rued Mohd. Shaker, a resident of ErraKunta under Jalpally municipality.

“The entire municipality was plagued with lack of proper planning and arrangements that led to loss of public faith in the municipal system in Jalpally. The Commissioner and Director of Municipal Administration (CD&MA) should take a serious note of the prevailing unwholesome situation in this Urban Local Body on the south and roll out some proactive measures to ensure people will get the benefit from the service being extended by the civic governing body,” demand Syed Afzal, a community activist.