State Finance Commission urges GPs to pay power bills on time
Mandya: Chairman of the 5th
State Finance Commission
,
C Narayanaswamy
emphasised the need for GPs to pay
electricity bills
for streetlights and
borewells
regularly and on time, utilising their allocated funds. He made this statement during a consultative meeting held at ZP which was attended by elected representatives and officials from both rural and urban local bodies.
Narayanaswamy cautioned against the prevailing belief that govt will always reconcile outstanding electricity bills. He referred to the reconciliation process that took place in March 2023, and instructed officials to verify the outstanding bill details provided by Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (CESC) before making payments. Highlighting inefficiencies, he noted that several unused borewells under the GPs' control still have active power connections. He recommended that such connections be promptly disconnected to prevent unnecessary charges. Additionally, he advised officials to scrutinise bills carefully, as they may sometimes include outdated charges, and to ensure only valid amounts are paid.
ZP CEO KR Nandini addressed the issue of overlapping guidelines in plan formulation between district and taluk panchayats. She stressed the need for co-ordinated planning to avoid duplication and proposed granting permissions for the management of public assets such as drinking water facilities and roads. Discussing utilising scheduled caste sub plan (SCSP) and tribal sub plan (TSP) grants, Nandini observed that population distribution varies across regions. She suggested that the existing guidelines be relaxed, to allow the redistribution of unutilised funds from areas with smaller SC/ST populations to those with larger communities, ensuring more equitable resource allocation. Nandini also requested a revision of the current cap, which limits road development expenditure to just 10%. She advocated for greater flexibility to address critical infrastructure needs.
The meeting was attended by presidents, vice-presidents, and gram panchayat members, town municipalities, and city municipalities. District panchayat's planning director Dhanush, provided an overview of the institutional framework, operations, staffing, budgets, expenditures, and financial flows from both State and Central govts. Mayannagowda, planning director of urban development cell, elaborated on urban local body operations, such as tax collection, water supply, drainage, street lighting, and solid waste management.
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