The Central Government has approved release of Rural Local Bodies ‘tied’ Grant of worth Rs 15,177 crore to State Governments as per recommendations of the XV Finance Commission for FY 2020-21. Tripura will receive a grant of Rs 47.75 crore under this category. This tied grants would be used in services of sanitation and supply of drinking water in rural Local bodies including ADC villages.
Giving this information, Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar said that the release of this fund to the RLBs signifies the most appropriate timing when the RLBs are fighting the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic situation. Availability of this fund with the RLBs will boost their effectiveness in delivery of basic services to the rural citizens and would also empower them in providing gainful employment to migrant laborers who have returned to their native places owing to Covid-19 pandemic situation as well as in augmenting rural infrastructure in a constructive way.
The State Finance Department will have to transfer the grants-in-aid within 10 working days of receipt from the Union Government. State Governments require transferring the fund without any deduction, the letter read and added, “Any delay beyond ten working days will require the State Governments to release the same with interest as per the effective rate of interest on market borrowings/State Development Loans (SDLs) for the previous year.”
Notably, the 15th FC recommended grants to all the tiers of Panchayati Raj Institutions including Autonomous district Councils in two parts – a basic grant and a tied grant. Of the total grant-in-aid fund 50 per cent each would be released for these two grants. The Central Government had already accepted FC’s recommendations pertaining to PRI bodies.
Whereas Basic grants can be used by Rural Local Bodies (RLBs) for location specific requirements, Tied grants can be used by RLBs, firstly for basic services of sanitation and maintenance of open-defecation free status and 2ndly, for supply of drinking water, rainwater harvesting and water recycling.
RLB tied grant would be governed as per the Operational Guidelines. Further, the States need to certify in the utilization certificates.
Relating to sharing pattern of the grants, the Ministry has advised the State(s) to allocate the grant in both the General areas and Excluded areas, if any within the State using population of 2011 Census with a weight of 90 per cent and Area with a weight of 10 per cent.
Clarifying further, the Ministry said, “Grants apportioned for General Areas shall be distributed as per the inter se share finalized for all tiers of Panchayats and distributed within each tier across the State on the basis of accepted recommendations of the latest State Finance Commission (SFC). However, in case of non-availability of SFC recommendation for distribution, the allocations should be on the basis of population and area in the ratio of 90:10”.
On transferring funds to Excluded areas, it is mentioned, grants shall be directly transferred by the State Finance Department to the concerned Autonomous District Councils(ADCl/Village Development Boards(VDB)/Gram Sabhas (as the case may be) through the concerned Administrative Departments/nodal Departments looking after Panchayati Raj/ADC/VDB matters”.
With the release of the tied grant, implementation of projects under Jal Jeevan Mission and Swachh Bharat Mission(Grameen) in rural and hill Tripura would get a boost.
