With Rs 100 crore deficit, Secunderabad Cantonment Board seeks aid from defence ministry to avert crisis

SECUNDERABAD: To tide over the financial crisis, Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) has decided to urge ministry of defence (MoD) to sanction of Rs 100 crore as grant-in-aid.
On Tuesday, SCB authorities introduced estimation proposals of Rs 227 crore for 2019-20 in its board meeting, with a deficit of Rs 100 crore.
This was the first time in the history of SCB that a budget with a deficit of Rs 100 crore was introduced.The meeting was convened under chairmanship of president cantonment board (PCB) Brig MD Upadhyay.
SCB chief executive officer, SVR Chandra Sekhar, told the board members that to overcome the financial crisis, there is no provision except to approach MoD.
According to SCB CEO, the MoD has not released service charges to SCB for the past many years. It is mandatory that the MoD releases Rs 26 crore every year, towards service charges for the defence establishments located in Cantonments towards expenditure such as maintenance of roads and sanitation. But, the MoD did not release these charges regularly to SCB. As a result, the service charges have accumulated up to Rs 400 to Rs 500 crore.
The CEO has put forth the estimation proposals for 2019-20, prepared under various heads, before board members.
According to CEO, an amount of Rs 7 crore has been allotted for infrastructure network like laying of new CC roads, Rs 9 crore for drainage network, Rs 6 crore for laying of new water lines, Rs 3 crore for new streetlights, and another Rs 1 crore for miscellaneous works.
Apart from these estimations, the SCB also allotted Rs 7 crore for water supply contingency works like repair of borewells and attending to water leakage works in the Cantonment. The CEO also said that Rs 24 crore has been allotted to pay pensions, gratuity and other benefits to the employees those retiring from the service.
The MoD has to release Rs 26 crore every year as service charges. It did not release service charges regularly to SCB. As a result, they have accumulated up to Rs 400 to Rs 500 crore .