Dec. 31: Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA)’s plans take a beating as funds generated by it are just enough to pay salaries to its staff and take up small projects.

This has once again raised the demand for a seed capital for the principal agency for the development of Guwahati.

A GMDA official said if it had seed capital, it could have taken up many major urban development projects by providing matching shares of its own. “Due to a lack of funds, the state government cannot always release a matching share and thus it affects the development of the city,” said an official.

The projects also get delayed on several occasions due to lack of budgetary support from the state government. For instance, the preparation of masterplan for Guwahati got delayed due to this reason.

The state government has sanctioned Rs 67 lakh for preparation of masterplan and procurement of satellite images this year, instead of the last fiscal.

Dhiren Baruah, a member of the GMDA pointed out that the organisation has been running on loan account since its inception.

The ongoing tussle over the building permission between the GMDA and the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) has become a cause of worry for the GMDA authorities. At present, it gets around Rs 50 lakh annually from granting building permission.

The GMDA sources said there has been a move to hand over power to grant permission to construct all kinds of buildings to the GMC. At present, the GMC grants permission for the construction of buildings upto three storeys only. The state government had only recently transferred the power to the GMC from the GMDA.

The GMDA has not been getting regular revenues from its two parking slots at Ganeshguri and Gotanagar. The lessee to whom Ganeshguri parking slot was awarded has become a defaulter. “Despite show cause notices for the last several months, the party could not pay the development authority the monthly fee of Rs 30 lakh,” GMDA sources said. A revenue of Rs 3 lakh per month from the Gotanagar parking slot is unavailable because of a court case with the lessee.

The only sources of regular revenue of the GMDA is the Rs 88.75 lakh it annually gets from land sale and Rs 50 lakh from building permits. From other miscellaneous sources like sale of sale deeds and building bylaws it gets around Rs 6 lakh. For payment of salary of its 40-odd staff, GMDA doles out around Rs 60 lakh every year.

Prominent citizens expressed concern over the lack of budgetary support for the premier development agency.