Patna, May 24: Don’t blame the state government for the bumpy rides on the city roads. The Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) is responsible for your plight.

The state had released Rs 15 lakh for each of the 72 wards in the city in 2010. But the money did not trickle down to most of the wards, stalling road repair and drain de-silting work.

The PMC wards come under four zones — Bankipore, Kankerbagh, Patna City and New Capital Area. According to sources, Bankipore and Kankerbagh zones have received 40 per cent of the ward development funds. The other two have not received a penny yet because of alleged callousness of a section of PMC officers.

People’s representatives in the corporation — the councillors — said the civic body had received Rs 10.8 crore after the last year’s budget entitled each councillor to spend Rs 15 lakh in their respective ward. “But the money has not reached the zones yet. After this year’s budget has been forwarded to the state government, which proposed Rs 25 crore for wards’ development, it becomes inevitable that the sum approved in the last year’s budget is spent soon. I don’t understand why the administrative officials are sitting on the money,” Abha Lata, a councillor, said.

Of the Rs 15 lakh earmarked for each ward, Rs 10 lakh was provided for road- and water pipeline-related works. The rest was to be spent on sewerage work. Lata said the tenders for the development works were invited several months ago but no contractor was coming forward to take them up because they were also aware of funds not reaching the ward-level.

“Only a few wards under Bankipore and Kankerbagh zones have seen some work. But most of the funds are lying unutilised at PMC headquarters. The officials are not releasing it on the pretext of giving salaries to the employees. But the reality is the staff members are also not getting their wages on time. I think callousness on the part of PMC commissioner is primarily responsible for the mess. I will ask the people of my ward to not to pay taxes if development works are not carried out,” Lata added.

Mayor Afzal Imam also accused the administrative officials for the delay in the ward development funds release.

“One-third of the total development funds allotted to councillors since 2009-10 has been lying unutilised because of delay in procedures. We have been asking the officials to release the funds in every empowered standing committee meetings and corporation board meetings but to no avail,” Imam said.

PMC commissioner Devesh Sehra refused to comment on the issue, while the chief engineer of the civic body, Ramswarath Singh, said the transfer of funds to the divisions was under process.

The residents said they were suffering because of callousness on the part of a few officials. “It is really unfortunate that the government funds earmarked for the capital’s civic-related issues are lying unutilised,” said Mohini Sharma, a resident of Postal Park Colony.