THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a first for the state, all the 1,200 local bodies in the state have submitted their annual plan for the consideration of the concerned district planning committee. Over 1,150 local bodies have already got their plans approved. Normally, it was only by September or October that local body plans got approved by the DPC. Among the 1,200 local bodies, 941 are grama panchayats, 152 block panchayats, 14 district panchayats, 87 municipalities, and six corporations. “It is for the first time in the 20-year history of decentralisation that such a huge number of local bodies have got their plans approved by the middle of June,” Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Friday.
“This will mean that there will be more time for plan implementation.” The Chief Minister said that this would encourage local bodies to prepare their plans for the next fiscal by the end of March next year so that they could begin work right from the start of the fiscal on April 1, 2018. He said the efficiency shown in getting the approval should be extended to the implementation of the plan. Initially, May 31 was the deadline fixed for local bodies to submit their plans to the respective DPCs. By that date, 795 local bodies had submitted their plans for approval.
The usual practice of bunching expenditure towards the fag end of the fiscal, will end as a consequence,” the Chief Minister added. During the last four fiscals, more than 38 per cent of the total plan expenditure of local bodies were spent during the last month of the fiscal (March); during 2016-17, it was an alarming 51.52 per cent. Local bodies have been earmarked Rs 6,227.5 crore as plan fund and Rs 2,183.44 crore as maintenance grant for the 2017-18 fiscal. This fiscal, all the 1200 local bodies together will take up 2.55 lakh projects worth Rs 15,504 crore.
