Centre yet to release over ₹3,000 crore owed to local bodies in state
MUMBAI: The central government has refused to release a whopping ₹3,000 crore-plus worth of funds meant for development works to urban and rural local bodies in the absence of elected representatives in these bodies. The rural local bodies stand deprived of over ₹1,800 crore while the urban local bodies are waiting for over ₹1,200 crore to be released as grants from the 15th Finance Commission.
Since elections to local bodies have not been held for over three years on account of various petitions pending in the Supreme Court, most urban and local bodies are governed by administrators who report directly to the state government. All the 29 municipal corporations, 248 municipal councils and 42 of 147 nagar panchayats in urban areas are currently under administrators as are all 34 district councils and 336 of 351 panchayat samitis in rural areas.
The 15th Finance Commission, whose five-year term ends on March 31 next year, releases funds to urban and rural local bodies for solid waste management and projects related to air quality and water supplies. The electric buses running in Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, for instance, were acquired from central government funding under this head. The union finance department, however, has refused to release the funds to local bodies that do not have elected representatives, as having an elected body is a precondition for the release of the funds.
The rural bodies were supposed to get ₹28,540 crore, but have received only ₹19,651 crore in the last five years. Similarly, the outstanding for the urban local bodies is over ₹1,200 crore. After chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and ministers representing the urban and rural development departments wrote to the respective departments of the central government, the rural bodies received ₹612 crore in the second week of March, but this was restricted only to those rural bodies with elected representatives. No funds were released for the urban bodies.
'We have been writing letters to the central government and have brought the issue to the notice of union rural development minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan during his Maharashtra visit last week,' said a top officer from the rural development department. 'He has assured us that he will take up the issue with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who has taken a stand to not release the funds until local body elections are held. We expect these polls to be held in October-November, paving the way for the release of ₹3,000 crore before the term of the 15th Finance Commission ends in March next year. The issue was even discussed before the 16th Finance Commission during its meeting with the CM last month.'
Another official from the urban development department said that the cash-strapped government was wary of losing huge funds if the local body elections were not held before the 15th Finance Commission's term ended. The elections have been delayed owing to the petitions challenging the OBC quota and the government's decision to take over the State Election Commission (SEC)'s powers of delimitation of wards among other reasons.
The Supreme Court, however, ordered the SEC two weeks ago to conduct elections in four months. The SEC has begun the process and is expected to conduct the elections in October-November this year.
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