The Hindu : `Civic bodies lagging behind in use of Plan funds'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 15, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

`Civic bodies lagging behind in use of Plan funds'

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, JAN. 14. Most of the civic bodies in the State have failed to spend even half of the Plan funds allotted to them, the Kerala State Municipal Administration Director, Rani George, has said.

Ms. George, who was in the city to review the performance of the civic bodies coming under the Kochi-based Regional Director of Municipal Administration, told mediapersons that the funds would lapse if the civic bodies failed to utilise them before the deadline of March 31.

While the Kochi Corporation spent 33 per cent of the allotted funds, which amounts to Rs. 7.65 crores, the Thripunithura and Chavakkad municipalities could spend only 10 per cent of the allotted funds.

The Kochi Corporation was allotted Rs. 22 crores as Plan funds. According to the figures presented at the review meeting, the Perumbavoor and Kodungalloor municipalities spent 66 per cent of the funds allotted to them. The authorities asked them to file a revised report, to check whether there are any discrepancies in the figures.

Even though many of the civic bodies are yet to fully utilise the funds, the authorities expect them to optimise the performance during the next two months. The performance of 17 municipalities and two Corporations coming under the Palakkad, Thrissur, Idukki and Ernakulam districts were reviewed today.

Similar review meetings had been held at Kollam and Kannur districts, Ms. George said.

Though the deadline of December 31 set by the Supreme Court for setting up solid waste management units had elapsed, most of the civic bodies in the State had not succeeded in setting up such units, she said.

A few municipalities were yet to identify land for setting up the units, she said. It was suggested that small civic bodies should go in for segregation of waste and use the residue for sanitary land filling.

During the review meeting, which was attended by the Regional Joint Director of Municipal Administration, K. Aloysius Mathew, it was found that many of the civic bodies were lagging behind in the collection of taxes and disbursement of social welfare pensions.

The civic bodies had been directed to augment revenue collection, to speed up disbursement of pension and to effectively implement programmes under the Clean Kerala Programme, Ms. George added.

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