Hyderabad: There has been a huge decline in the Centre’s grants to the state in the first quarter of the current financial year, from April to June. This year, the Centre released Rs 1,351.3 crore for various schemes, almost Rs 900 crore less than the same period in 2018-19.
Sources in the state government said that the Centre in the first quarter of the last financial year had released grants for the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF), Finance Commission, micro irrigation, nutrition and National Rural Water Drinking Programme. These schemes did not get any money this year.
Sources stated that the shortfall was due to the decrease in central tax collection across the country. This impacted the share of tax devolution and allocation of grants for centrally sponsored schemes to all the states. Sources said that in the first quarter the Centre had released grants of Rs 420 crore for the National Health Mission, Rs 119 crore for Swatch Bharath (Grameen), Rs 129 crores for Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and Rs 240 crore for Sarva Shikha Abhiyan.
The Centre has released Rs 187 crore for the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme and 18.4 crore for the modernisation of police and other forces. Sources said that the Centre in the first quarter of the last financial year had released Rs 45.8 crores for police modernisation.
