Raising the issue during the general board meeting on Thursday afternoon, Leader of Opposition Himmatsinh Patel said that municipal commissioner B K Sinha's letter to the State government on April 1 highlighting the poor financial condition of the corporation has created concern among the members.

He said that in the letter, Sinha stated that the AMC is facing acute fund shortage and the government should pay Rs 65 crore at the earliest which the AMC owed to the State government. "If funds are not released forthwith, the corporation will have to stop several development and necessary works immediately," he quoted.

Patel was later joined by other members including Surendra Baxi, Hasankhan Pathan and Khurshid Ahmed Sayyed, who made a scathing attack on the ruling members and chairman of the standing committee Dharmendra Shah for their alleged failure in taking early steps to control the situation.

Baxi also demanded an immediate action plan to do away with the water crisis in several areas in the walled city.

Himmatsinh also criticised the two-time water supply system stating that it would put additional financial burden on the corporation. He demanded that AMC should instruct hotel owners to supply purified water to customers keeping in mind the chances of epidemic. He alleged that till date, the ruling party has announced several action plans and measures to control spread of epidemics but none have been implemented.

In his reply, standing committee chairman Dharmendra Shah denied that development works were hindered due to financial crunch. He also mocked the Congress argument to stop two-time water supply in the city saying that earlier Congress members raised the issue of water crisis and demanded water supply twice a day. And now when the AMC resumed the evening supply, they were condemning it.

Shah further said that efforts were on to cope with the financial crisis. The members also discussed issues like sale of unhygienic food and drinks, preventive measures to control epidemics and interference of some BJP MLAs in AMC demolition works.