Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 16: Condemning the State Government for its policy of delay and deny over elections to Urban Local Bodies, NPP chairman and former minister Harsh Dev Singh regretted that the State has been deprived of thousands of crores of rupees for development of Municipal areas which has been withheld by the Central Government since 2010 due to the failure of the Govt to constitute the elected Municipal bodies.
Singh regretted that non- holding of ULB polls due to vested interests of BJP and PDP, has deprived the State of development grants for such Municipal bodies which comprised 74 Municipal Committees, 6 Municipal Councils and 2 Municipal Corporations. He said that with no indication of such elections being held before March 2018, the State was set to lose another hundreds of crores due to non-conduct of polls.
Referring to the decision of the 14th Finance Commission to enhance the funding for local bodies in the State, Harsh Dev pointed out that the FC had proposed Rs 4161 crore for the State, which included Rs 3117.36 crore for Rural Local Bodies and Rs 1044.51 crore for Urban Local Bodies with a precondition that funds would be released only if elected local bodies were constituted as a measure of democratic decentralization.
Singh said that the 14th FC had provided a grant of Rs 125.30 crore in the first instance for 2015-16 which however, could not be availed and got lapsed. He said earlier also Rs 169.29 crores of funds under 13th FC for Urban Local Bodies had lapsed for the same reason. Likewise, around Rs 173.50 crore proposed for 2016-17 under 14th FC also got lapsed as Government failed to constitute Municipal bodies before March 2017. He deplored that the lackadaisical approach of the Govt and the dirty politics played by coalition partners by postponing elections for political reasons was depriving the general masses of the benefits under various Govt schemes.
He said that non-holding of immediate elections had further deprived the State of ‘Performance Grant’ of Rs 607 crore for five years starting from April 1, 2015 which had been assured by the 14th Finance Commission as additional grant in case the State fulfilled the benchmarks stipulated by it.
Flaying the dilly- dally tactics of the State Government, Singh said the Coalition Government was to be blamed for poor delivery of basic civic services including electricity, water supply, sanitation sewage and solid waste management, upkeep of roads, lanes, drains, footpaths, street lighting besides other facilities.
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