Lokmat News Network
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
There are no elected representatives in the municipal corporation Hence there is nobody’s check on financial expenditures. Meanwhile, shocking instances of spending lakhs of rupees on small and large events have come to light.
It so happened that, on September 17, 2023, a cultural programme featuring singer and composer Avadhoot Gupte was held at Kranti Chowk to mark the Amrit Mahotsav year of the Marathwada Muktisangram Day. A staggering Rs 62,000 were spent on a single video for this event. Besides, Rs 2.89 lakh was spent on social media marketing. In total, the municipal corporation spent Rs 28 lakh (or 2.8 million) on this four-hour event.
For Avadhoot Gupte's cultural program, various videos were made for the four-hour event, and a bill of a whopping Rs 9.94 lakh including GST was paid. Notably, the municipal corporation immediately cleared this exorbitant bill. The bill included an amount of Rs 62,000 including GST for a single video. The municipal corporation paid bills under the names of social media setup and social media marketing. The municipal corporation blindly paid the bill to the agency Lime Light Correction, said the sources.
A total of Rs 28 lakh was spent on this programme. Along with the Amrit Mahotsav of the Marathwada Liberation Struggle, a cabinet meeting was also organised in the city. The District Information Office (DIO) spent around Rs 37 lakh on publicity. The information office has requested that this expenditure be covered from the Rs 40 crore fund provided by the government to the municipal corporation, but the civic body has currently put this file aside.
Meanwhile, additional commissioner Ranjit Patil said that this matter is related to the Public Relations section. Hence, he would provide more details after consulting with the officials concerned.
Emphasis on videos
Videos of various municipal corporation programmes are created and posted on social media. For this, bills amounting to lakhs of rupees are being paid to the agency 'Phirasta Media.' each video costs between Rs 30,000 to Rs 35,000, claimed sources.