Cooch Behar, Sept. 22: The Congress-run municipality here has threatened to stop supplying water in protest against the non-availability of funds promised to it for the job by the state urban affairs department.

?For the past two years, the municipality has been spending over Rs 6 lakh every month on water supply. This is becoming too heavy a burden for us to bear. So, we have decided to discontinue supplying water. We have conveyed our decision to the district magistrate,? said civic chairman Biren Kundu.

He claimed that the state government, which was earlier supplying the water, had promised to release extra funds to the civic body to carry out the additional responsibility.

?The task of supplying water was earlier done by the public health engineering (PHE) department. When the state government handed over the task to us in 2002, it promised to give us Rs 31 lakh a year. So far, we have received just Rs 17 lakh,? Kundu pointed out.

He said the municipality was building two reservoirs, work on which had got stalled because of a funds shortage.

According to the chairman, the expenditure on water supply was making it difficult for the civic body to meet the costs of paying wages to the workers and carry out routine maintenance work.

Municipality sources said nearly Rs 1 lakh was collected by way of water taxes. The rest of the cost had to borne by the civic body, they added.

The chairman also claimed that the added burden was taking a toll on the civic coffers, resulting in irregular payment of salaries.

The district administration, on the other hand, said it had no idea of any such problem.

Additional district magistrate O.S. Meena, currently in-charge, said he was yet to see the notification that Kundu said he had sent to the district magistrate. Even the executive engineer of the PHE department, Saumitra Sengupta, denied knowledge of the development.

In another development, the municipality was rocked today by a series of protests launched by the CPM against the civic body?s alleged financial corruption.

Around 50 civic employees, who are members of Left parties, also sat on a hunger strike outside the municipality gate.

?The municipality has raised taxes and levies across the board and has turned into a money-making organisation. Despite this, there is no certainty that the employees will get their salaries for the month,? said Swadesh Chandra Hore, the secretary of the Citu-affiliated municipal workers? union.

Criticising the movement, , the civic chief said: ?The movement is unjustified since it is merely aimed at creating a commotion ahead of the civic poll. They should launch a protest against their own government for falling back on its promises.?