Asserting that the government will not lag behind in giving development grants for municipal bodies, Urban Development Minister, Francis D’Souza, has, however, put the ball in the court of the newly-elected councils to do the spade work and stake claims for funds.
D’Souza made it amply clear that government grants would flow to civic bodies only if development proposals come to the office of Director of Municipal administration for funds.
“There will be no dearth of funds for civic bodies. Each ward is entitled for an annual development grant of Rs 10 lakh. However, the municipalities are required to comply with the procedure. They ought to take the resolutions and ensure that the land is in their possession. Only then, the municipalities will be entitled for grants,” he told The Goan during his visit to Davorim in connection with a BJP workers' programme on Sunday.
Replying to a question, D’Souza said many a council in the past could not take advantage of the government grants simply because they failed to comply with the laid down procedure.
“What we had found was that most councils sent their development proposals without complying with the procedure. This only caused huge delays, with development proposals not taking off altogether," he said.
On a cautious note, the Urban Development Minister said that the government does not want a situation when funds sanctioned to the civic bodies remain unutilized and in fixed deposits.
“We do not want a repeat of the signature projects when the previous government had given grants to the civic and panchayat bodies coinciding with the Golden Jubilee celebrations. Moreover, the audit had in the past raise queries on some of the civic bodies keeping the grants unutilized for reasons best known to them. We do not want such a situation,” he said.
