In what is being presented as a New Year’s gift for all urban local bodies in the state, the State Government has released Rs 186.32 crore for the urban local bodies. The sum has been released as the fourth quarterly installment for the financial year 2018-19 as per the recommendations of the fourth State finance commission.
Rawat said that the government will not allow the paucity of the funds to affect functioning of the local bodies. Stating that the state government is committed to the development of urban local bodies, he said that every possible effort will be made to strengthen them.
According to the decisions taken by the government on the recommendations of the fourth State finance commission recommendations, for all the urban local bodies including municipal corporations, municipal councils and Nagar Panchayats, the government order for releasing the fourth quarter installment of Rs 186.32 crore for the financial year 2018-19 has been issued by Finance secretary Amit Singh Negi. Out of this total amount, a sum of `65.55 crore has been released for eight municipal corporations in the state. A total of Rs 65.32 crore has been released for the municipal councils while a sum of Rs 11.25 crore has been released for the Nagar Panchayats. All the 13 district Panchayats of the state have been disbursed a total amount of Rs 42.64 crore.
The funds released to the urban local bodies will be used for street lights, water supply, salary and allowances of employees, clearance of claims of retired employees and payment for development works. The amount released to the district Panchayats will be utilised on sewerage and solid waste management, drainage and sanitation, maintenance of community assets, street lights, construction of Anganwadi buildings, construction of additional class rooms, salary, allowances and development works.