COIMBATORE: The City Corporation has borrowed over Rs 45 crore from money-lending institutions to carry out development works in the last four years, according to the answer to an RTI query from a city-based activist, Daniel Jesudass.
It has borrowed Rs 35.56 crore from the Tamil Nadu Urban Development Project (TNUDP) and Rs 9.6 crore from the Water and Sanitation Pooled Fund (WSPF), a State government trust and in the four years from October 2011.
The reply said the money borrowed from WSPF was for laying roads, but had nothing about the purpose of the Rs 35.56-crore loan from TNUDP.
The Corporation officials are concealing the information as more money would have been borrowed from other institutions, alleged Daniel Jesudass.
“I sought the information from the Corporation to find what works have been taken up and and the budget for them. In fact, no major works have been carried out in the last four years. Even the newly laid roads are in a very poor condition,” he said.
“The Corporation’s Engineering Wing used low quality materials to fix pipe leakage and other engineering works. Public money is being misused in several other civic works. However, the work is not monitored to ensure quality,” added Daniel.
On finding that the Health Wing had ‘misused’ public funds to buy pesticides in the name of killing mosquitoes, Daniel had asked for the total expenditure for it in the last four years.
However, City Health Officer K Santhosh Kumar gave the information only for four months in 2014.
“The Corporation spent Rs 23,45,963 in February, Rs 29,04,525 in May, Rs 29,04,525 in August and Rs 29,04,525 in November to buy pesticides from the Paramount company,” was all that the City Health Officer said in reply to the RTI query on expenditure for four years.