Vadodara: The financial woes of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) now seem to have started reflecting on its development works. The civic body has been forced to put a pond beautification project on hold as it was not a priority area given the financial situation.VMC had brought out tenders for the beautification of the Kapurai pond last year. The tenders were opened and a contractor was identified. The work was to be conducted at an expense of Rs 2.28crore which was 18.13% lower than the estimates.The proposal for the Kapurai pond was sent to the VMC standing committee in August last year, but was not included in the agendas of the meetings of the panel.Sources said that this was done in wake of directives that major expenses on works other than those that are in priority areas should not be done.With the work order not being issued to the contractor as the committee did not give its nod, the contractor wrote to the VMC stating that he was not keen on doing the work anymore and his earnest money deposit should be returned. This was taken up for discussion by the standing committee on Thursday and it was decided that the work should not be taken up and the deposit should be returned.Sources in the standing committee said that the expenses on necessary services will not be compromised by the civic body.“But for now we have decided not to take up works on beautification of ponds till the financial situation improves,” said a member.Contractors seek paymentsVadodara: Contractors working with the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) made another round of representations to officials of the civic body on Thursday seeking settlement of their pending dues.Dinesh Makwana, who is leading the agitation for payments, said that the contractors had been making repeated requests to the civic body for the settlement of their dues. “We will wait for some more time and if the situation does not improve, we may have to stop work,” he said.According to Makwana, payment of around Rs 50crore for 60 to 70 contractors is yet to the released by the VMC. He added that due to this the speed of ongoing works is also being affected. The contractors had held a meeting on Wednesday following which the representations were made on Thursday.‘VMC not taking up onus of payments’Vadodara: The accounts department that is responsible for releasing payments for development works after bills are submitted to it now seems to be in no mood to take risks. The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) opposition has claimed that the department is now giving only administrative ratification for projects and not financial.Former opposition leader Chirag Zaveri said, “The department is now noting on files that the payments for projects will be made if there is provision when the bills are submitted. This reflects on the situation in the VMC.” He even furnished a paper with such a noting and has shot a letter to the chief minister in this regard. The opposition has been seeking a white paper on the financial condition of the civic body since quite some time now.

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