BJP MP seeks early release of pending grants

BJP Rajya Sabha Member K C Ramamurthy on Tuesday demanded that the Centre release performance grants to urban local bodies and panchayat raj institutions in Karnataka.

The 14th Finance Commission had recommended basic and performance grants to further strengthen local bodies. There is no doubt that allocation to local bodies recommended by 14th FC is twice that of 13th FC and Finance Ministry had promptly released all basic grants to states as recommended by 14th FC, along with Performance Grants for 2016-17 and 2017-18, he said during Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha

“As far as Karnataka is concerned, performance grants for Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) for 2018-19 comes to Rs 295 crores and for 2019-20 it comes to Rs 386 crores. For RLBs, ( rural local bodies) Performance Grants for 2018-19 comes to Rs 234 crores and for 2019-20 it comes to Rs 306 crores. If one takes into account total grants recommended by the 14th Finance Commission, it comes to Rs 2,100.25 crores. But, the Centre has released so far Rs 869.40 crores; thereby an amount of Rs 1,230.85 crores is pending for release,”he said.

The Panchayati Raj Ministry had already submitted its recommendations and Karnataka Government had also submitted necessary utilisation certificates for spending of money. The Karnataka Chief Minister and Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj from Karnataka, had also written letters requesting for release of funds at the earliest. The Finance Minister should take initiative and release pending dues of Performance Grants to Karnataka as early as possible, he said.