Although the sanitation level of the town was deteriorating with each passing day, the officials of the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) claimed to have spent almost half of the corporation’s annual budget in maintaining and improving the sanitation level. As per official sources, MCD has spent Rs 14.49 crore on sanitation this year alone.
Sources of the MCD revealed that maximum amount possible out of the annual budget of Rs 36.84 crore was spent on improving sanitation works and improving lighting in public areas of the city.
An official of the corporation informed that the amount spent for the sanitation works included repairing the out of order vehicles and purchasing vehicles needed for sanitation works, dustbins and various other types of equipment. The other major part of the budget was spent on improving the lighting in the city, he said.
Contrary to the above mentioned claims, District Magistrate and acting Mukhya Nagar Adhikari, BVRC Purushottam had recently directed repair of about 50 per cent vehicles of the MCD that are out of order.
According to a municipal official, Rs 38.51 crore received from various sources has been spent by the corporation on various works. He said that the amount proposed by the MCD for the annual budget was Rs 87.42 crore while the sanctioned amount by the state government was lesser at about Rs 36.8 crore which was just 42 percent of the proposed amount. He stated MCD officials had proposed an amount of Rs 5 lakh from Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) but no response was received from there.