The commissioner subsequently submitted a proposal in March this year postponing payment of ex-gratia till the corporation regains its financial footing and finds a way out of the unprecedented deficit is has run up.The proposal, naturally, has not been received well by either corporators or employees and the union, and the latter are only baying for more. Gokhale argued against payment of ex-gratia this year, saying it shouldbe payable within the available revenue. Under no circumstances, he said, should it draw on resources sourced from civic taxes.

Simply put, the commissioner was merely saying that on no account should the employees' perks and benefits outstrip the dire need to spend on basic amenities, especially when establishment costs account for a monstrous 73 per cent of expenditure.

With three-quarters of revenue earned by the BMC being lavished on salaries, bonus, ex-gratia, overtime and other monetary benefits for its 1.5 lakh workforce, can the corporation afford to wink at its obligation to provide essential civic services to the citizens? ``It is the duty of the corporation to spend large portions of its revenue realised from taxes on providing basic amenities to the citizens. Unfortunately, this has been overlooked in the recent past and spending heavily on ex-gratia has resulted in substantial reduction in the expenditure on essential services,'' Gokhale had said. Moreover, the corporation is not bound to payex-gratia, which was introduced as a welfare measure in 1985 on the lines of that offered by the state government. However, civic unions began to expect the benefit as a right, upping the ante every three years - the Rs 16.27 crore paid in 1985 has now ballooned into Rs 111.05 crore.

But if the proposal to cancel payment for this year appears reasonable, the unions simply won't hear of it. It does not matter that the monetary and other benefits of municipal employees are more attractive than those cornered by state government employees.

Overtime allowances are another drain on income. Last year, peons and clerks earned about Rs 100 crore as overtime, forcing officers to admit that this can be reduced if not done away with altogether.

The corporation currently spends 73.76 per cent of its income on establishment costs, the highest among all corporation in the country. In 1995-96, 49.10 per cent of the BMC's income was spent on the administration. And this is only likely to increase once therecommendations of the Sukhtankar Committee, appointed to consider revision of pay scales and allowances of the officers' cadre, are implemented.

Apart from spiralling establishment costs, the parallel increase in pension benefits will force the administration to fork out Rs 1,422.90 crore against an income of Rs 1,929.02 crore. Add to this inflationary pressures and the corporation finds itself in a financial quagmire, which saw the administration panicking late last year.

In one fell swoop, the administration issued a series of directives freezing recruitment and asking all departments to improve productivity, among other things.

With attention rivetted on the unions' demands amid dwindling revenue, civic services have been all but given the go-by. Gokhale has himself admitted that the cash-crunch has made it well nigh impossible to allocate adequate funds for essential activities and basic services. Moreover, the city's ever-rising population has only widen the corporation's financial obligations,which will remain largely unfulfilled in the forthcoming year.

Apart from establishment costs, the BMC also kicked off concretisation and beautification projects this year. While Rs 30 lakh has already been spent on beautifying a portion of the Swatantraya Veer Savarkar Marg at Prabhadevi, the corporation has allotted an additional Rs 159.80 crore in the present budget for road works, which are meant to ease traffic problems and cut expenditure on road maintenance.

About 350 km of roads are proposed to be concretised, with 40 km targeted for completion by the year-end.

Upgrading the city's sewerage system, an unholy mess at present, will also mean substantial costs to the administration. Surveys to review to the subterranean network are almost complete and a provision of Rs 77 crore has been made for the period 1998-2002. Consultants will then be appointed to execute the work.

The corporation, of course, does not budget for wastages and these built-in risks have only drained the corporation ofvaluable resources. For instance, an additional Rs 7 crore was set aside for the marine outfall at Bandra as work on lining the tunnel was found to be below par. This set the corporation back by a whopping Rs 70 crore, which had already been spent on the project.

The BMC has also allotted Rs 24 crore for consultancy services which will undertake feasibility studies on Phase-II of the Bombay Sewerage Disposal Project.

Mounting expenditure, inflationary pressures and the clamour for bigger pay packets has forced the corporation into penury, leaving the administration desperate to think up alternative sources of income. But, for the present, the imagination fails to oblige.