Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 24: Condemning the State Govt 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 Govt since 2010 due to the failure of the State Govt to constitute the elected Municipal Bodies.
Talking to media persons here Mr Singh regretted that non- holding of ULB elections due to vested interests of BJP and PDP despite repeated assurances during 2015 and 2016 has deprived the State of development grants for such Municipal bodies which comprised 74 Municipal Committees, six Municipal Councils and two Municipal Corporations. He said that with no indication of such elections being held in 2017, the State was set to lose another hundreds of crores due to political inexpediencies of BJP and PDP.
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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 said commission 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. Mr 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 due to Govts failure to hold such elections. Likewise, around Rs 173.50 crore proposed for 2016-17 under 14th FC also got lapsed as Govt failed to constitute Municipal Bodies before March 2017.
NPP leader 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 envisaged for them under various Central Govt schemes. He said that non-holding of immediate elections would further deprive 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.
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