Union Govt Releases Rs 4,608 Crore To States As Grants To Local Bodies, Total Rs 87,460 Crore Released In FY21
The Finance Ministry’s head office (Mint via Getty Images)As per the recommendations of the 15 Finance Commission, Ministry of Finance on Wednesday (31 March) released Rs 4,608 crore to states for providing grant-in-aid to the local bodies.
The grants are both for the Rural Local Bodies (RLBs) and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs). Out of this, RLBs will get Rs 2,660 crore and ULBs will get Rs 1,948 crore.
In the financial year 2020-21, the government has released a total amount of Rs 87,460 crore to 28 states as local body grants. Out of this, Rs 60,750 crore have been released for RLBs while Rs 26,710 crore have been released for ULBs, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement.
The RLB grants are meant for all the tiers in the panchayat - village, block and district as well as for fifth and sixth schedule areas in the States.
ULB grants have been provided in two categories i.e grants for million plus cities and grants for non-million plus cities. While million plus cities have been provided grants of Rs 8,357 crore, non-million plus cities have got Rs 18,354 crore from the ministry in 2020-21.
Entire grants to million plus cities are tied in nature. To receive these grants, the million plus cities are required to develop city-wise and areas-wise targets on ambient air quality based on annual average concentrations of PM 10 and PM 2.5.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEF&CC) will monitor and evaluate the improvement and recommend disbursal of grants to such cities. MOEF&CC will also take up establishment of ambient air quality monitoring network, source apportionment studies and update the air-quality data of these cities.
Besides ambient air quality improvement, grants to million plus cities have also been linked for improving conservation, supply and management of water and efficient solid waste management, which are critical for planned urbanization.
For this component, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is the nodal ministry and is entrusted with development of city-wise and year-wise targets and recommend disbursals of grants to these cities.
The states are required to transfer the grants to the local bodies within ten working days. Any delay beyond this period makes the state government liable to release the grants with interest to the local bodies.
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