Chandigarh, May 7 -- Reiterating a long-standing demand, Chandigarh mayor Harpreet Kaur Babla has once again requested Punjab governor and UT administrator Gulab Chand Kataria to allocate at least 50% of the revenue generated by the Registering and Licensing Authority (RLA) to the cash-strapped municipal corporation (MC) for the maintenance of city roads and parking areas. Amid MC's debilitating financial crunch, essential road carpeting work in the city has not been undertaken for the second consecutive season this year after no repairs through 2024. Road carpeting is typically carried out in the October-November and March-April periods, as these months provide the ideal weather conditions for the process - before peak summer or winter set in and after the moisture-heavy monsoon season ends. However, despite completing paperwork for nearly 400 km of roads that urgently need repairs, tenders for road repairs remain unopened due to lack of funds, as per MC officials. The civic body maintains a road network of 2,000 km throughout Chandigarh. This includes various types of roads, such as V-3 (sector dividing road), V-4 (shopping street),V-5 (sector circulation road), V-6 (access roads to houses), and parking lots in various sectors, colonies and villages. In a letter sent on Tuesday, Babla pointed out that MC was responsible for maintaining nearly 60% of Chandigarh's total road length. Despite the scale of this responsibility, MC receives no specific share from RLA's annual revenue, which is estimated to be around Rs.350 crore. "The Chandigarh administration may pay the share of tax to the MC under Section 90 (6) (b) of Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, as extended to Chandigarh. As per the sections, after the close of each year, the government may pay to the MC whole or such part as it may determine of the tax collected by it ; and under the Punjab Motor Vehicles Taxation Act, 1924, as applicable to Chandigarh, from every person keeping a motor vehicle within the local area of the city," she wrote. "The allocation of at least 50% of the RLA's revenue will allow us to maintain roads, parkings and pavements more effectively. The funds will be used exclusively for this purpose," Babla stated. "This is another request to the governor, who patiently heard our concerns. He assured us of full support and said the matter will be taken up with the ministry of home affairs for a quick decision," Babla told HT. Notably, MC's financial crisis is running deep, with all development works stalled since May 2024. Apart from road repairs, this includes laying of paver blocks, renovation and upgrade of community centres, beautification of markets, improvements to public toilets and cremation grounds, and horticulture-related projects. MC is stretched thin in terms of meeting other monthly financial obligations as well, including pensions, water and electricity bills, maintenance works and fuel expenses. While MC remains hopeful of additional funding from the UT administration, no concrete support has materialised so far....