Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Dec 27: The Central Government has linked Rs 4401 crores worth grants of Jammu and Kashmir to be given to elected Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies under 14th Finance Commission Award with holding of election to both rural and urban local bodies. The State was facing potential threat of losing hefty grants during current financial year in the absence of both the elected bodies.
Top official sources told the Excelsior that Jammu and Kashmir was at the verge of losing huge funds, running into several thousands of crores for the failure to hold Panchayat and Municipal elections as the 14th Finance Commission has linked funds in various categories to be spent only through the elected Panchayats and Municipalities, both of which didn’t exist in the State at present.
“As much as Rs 3096 crores worth grants under the14th Finance Commission Award were proposed to be spent through the elected Panchayats, which had ceased to exist in Jammu and Kashmir on July 16 this year in the event of delay in holding timely elections to them. Similarly, an amount of Rs 1305.64 crores has been kept in the same Finance Commission for elected Urban Local Bodies, which were not in place for past more than six and half years now,’’ sources said, adding that this would be a very grave situation if the State, which didn’t have much of its own resources, faced the threat of losing potential funding from the Centre for not holding both urban and rural bodies elections.
In the previous 13th Finance Commission, Jammu and Kashmir has already paid the price for not holding the Municipal elections as the State had lost Rs 169.29 crores, which were to be spent by the Urban Local Bodies. The Centre didn’t release these funds as they were to be spent only through the elected Municipal bodies, which had ceased to exist in Jammu and Kashmir in March 2010.
Noting that the 14th Finance Commission Award has proposed Rs 3096 crores for Panchayats and Rs 1305.64 crores for Municipal bodies in Jammu and Kashmir, sources said the State was in potential danger of losing these grants in the event of delay in holding elections to Panchayats and Municipalities.
Not only this, the Government of India has also linked the further funding under AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) with elected Municipal bodies. As per the Centre’s proposal, further grants under AMRUT spending would be released only through the elected Municipal bodies but since the elected ULBs were not in place in Jammu and Kashmir, these grants could be delayed.
The Centre has approved five towns in Jammu and Kashmir for development under AMRUT that included Jammu, Srinagar, Anantnag, Leh and Kargil. The Centre has already approved State Annual Action Plan (SAAP) 2016-17 for an amount of Rs 197.33 crores for these cities/towns.
However, according to sources, the Centre has linked further funding under AMRUT scheme through elected Urban Bodies, which were not in place in Jammu and Kashmir.
While the Government has already made its intentions clear on holding Panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir in March next year by designating the State Chief Electoral Officer as the State Election Commission for holding the polls, it hasn’t come out with any plan so far on the conduct of Urban Local Bodies’ elections.
Sources said apart from the Finance Commission Awards, the State Government has lost other direct funding for the ULBs also during past six and half years by not holding elections to them as Union Ministry for Housing and Urban Development has linked several grants, which had to be spend only through the Municipal bodies.
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