BANGALORE: The Third State Finance Commission, which is looking into the devolution of funds to local bodies, including panchayati raj institutions and municipalities, will submit its report to the government by December.

Commission Chairman A.G. Kodgi told presspersons here on Tuesday after interacting with members of zilla, taluk and gram panchayats coming under the jurisdiction of the Bangalore Urban Zilla Panchayat, that the commission was in the process of eliciting the views of members of the local bodies on the devolution of funds.

The commission had already held meetings with members of local bodies in 10 districts. It would also visit other States such as Kerala, Gujarat and Maharashtra to study their examples. Before finalising the recommendations to be made to the Government, the commission would also have hold discussion with experts in various organisations dealing with local bodies and decentralisation of administration.

Questionnaires sent

The commission had already sent questionnaires to various elected representatives, such as legislators and MPs, besides officials, to ascertain their views on the devolution of funds. The general public would also be invited to share their views soon, he said.

Backward areas

Commission member and former bureaucrat T. Thimme Gowda said the commission was examining the demand from elected representatives to provide more funds to the backward areas, including villages that have been included in the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, for upgrading infrastructure.

During the consultation process, the elected representatives from Bangalore Urban district had pointed out that 750 wards in 29 village panchayats had been included in the BBMP. But these villages did not have proper infrastructure. Hence, the members requested the commission to provide more funds to these villages to help upgrade their infrastructure to the level of other areas under the BBMP.

Infrastructure

Similarly, members from backward villages in the State, especially those coming under the taluks identified as backward by the D.M. Nanjundappa committee on regional imbalances, had sought the grant of special funds to develop infrastructure. He said the commission would examine all these demands.

Commission Secretary K.R. Shashidhara said its terms of references included deciding the share of taxes between the State Government and local bodies and also deciding the share of taxes among different local bodies such as panchayati raj institutions, municipal bodies and city corporations. The commission had also been asked to recommend methods of improving the financial condition of local bodies, efficient utilisation of local resources, ways of providing financial aid to local bodies from the Consolidated Fund and ensuring prompt repayment of loans by local bodies.

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