Thiruvananthapuram: Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac has claimed that the plan fund utilisation of local bodies during 2018-19 which stood at 85 per cent was an all-time record.
While replying to an adjournment notice given by Mr K.C. Joseph of the Congress, Mr Isaac said that apart from the record plan fund spending, the government has also allowed a carry-over of 20 per cent. This meant that the carry-over will be higher than the Rs 837-crore that was queued up in the treasury,” Mr Isaac said.
He blamed local bodies with more than 20 per cent carry-over for sheer inefficiency. However, as Opposition members pointed out the floods and elections for the failure to spend the funds, Mr Isaac said that he would consider making up for the losses of local bodies that had a carry-over of more than 20 per cent. He said that Rs 808 crore of the Rs 837 crore in the queue last fiscal had been released to the local bodies. Only Rs 28 crore remains to be given, he said.
Following his reply, Speaker P. Sreeramkrishnan refused permission for the motion, which prompted the Opposition to walk out.
Earlier, the Assembly witnessed heated exchanges between Mr Isaac and the Opposition over the issue.
While the minister argued that over 95 per cent of the money in the bills of completed works had been queued up in the treasury till March 31, the Opposition alleged that the state government had set March 23 as the last date to submit bills for completed works.
Mr Joseph said that no bills were accepted after March 27. This was against the normal procedure of accepting bills right till the midnight on March 31, the last day of the fiscal.
As a result, nearly 50 per cent of the plan funds of local bodies this fiscal has been cut. The government was virtually starving the local bodies of development funds.
They have been asked to fund the money for the spill over projects of last fiscal from the allotment made in this fiscal, Mr Joseph said.
