Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Financial powers of ZPs restored

GULBARGA: The State Government, in a major concession to the zilla panchayats, has decided to restore its powers to choose the works to be taken up under the funds provided under 3054 financial head and the 12th Finance Commission funds.

The decision of the State Government, in the beginning of the financial year, to take away the powers of the selection of works under the 3054 financial account and the 12th Finance Commission funds and delegate the powers of selection to the MLAs had led to a stand off between the State Government and the zilla panchayats in the State.

All the zilla panchayats had protested by passing unanimous resolutions that the State Government had no powers to decide on the works in the funds and the that it also had no powers to take away the executive and financial powers of the zilla panchayat.

The State Government, in its earlier order, said that the action plan for the funds provided under these two heads should be prepared as per the works suggested by the legislators and submitted to the general body of the zilla panchayat for its approval. However, most of the zilla panchayats refused to give its approval to the action plans prepared as per the recommendations of the legislators and the funds under these two heads remained unspent.

The State Government, in a notification issued on December 28 last year, has retracted from its step and restored the financial and executive powers of the zilla panchayat.

The notification also relaxed the financial norms of the tenders to be floated for the works to be taken up using two-third of the allocation made under the 3054 financial head. Earlier, the Government had insisted that the tender packages should be to the order ranging from Rs. 60 to Rs. 100 lakh and in the changed order this has been reduced to Rs. 8 to Rs. 15 lakh a package.

The remaining one third of the amount under the 3054 financial head would be spent on the works suggested by the zilla panchayat works on piece work basis.

The 3054 financial head mainly deals with the allocation of funds for the maintenance of roads in rural areas.

Similarly, the Government had also conceded the demand of the zilla panchayats in selecting the works and spending the money provided under the 12th Finance Commission funds.

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