Gram Panchayats in Telangana get fund to fight Covid in villages

Hyderabad: The State Finance Commission has released funds to the Gram Panchayats to meet the expenses of sanitation and other anti-coronavirus operations in villages.

The 32 rural districts of the State have been given Rs 10 crore each on the average. Each GP is given about Rs 2.5 lakh on an average. The amounts have been given based on the number of residents of the GP.

Though the government wanted to give funds to the GPs to take up the Palle Pragathi programme being taken up in the state from September last year, they would now be used to fight the coronavirus.

The funds have been issued at the rate of Rs 110 per person of the Gram Panchayats. In the absence of Fifteenth Finance Commission grants, the SFC funds have been helping the GPs to face the situation arising out of the coronavirus pandemic.

The State government has been giving funds to the GPs adding its share to the Central Finance Commission till the previous financial year. About Rs 330 crore had been given each month till the previous financial year.

The grants of the Fifteenth Finance Commission which would come into force from this financial year are yet to be released to the States. The Centre proposed to give 15th FC funds to Zilla Parishads, Mandal Parishads and Gram Panchayats.

The State government has been asked to fix a ratio to distribute those funds and inform the same by April 15. However, the state government did not send its proposals to the Centre to get 15th FC funds. With this the GPs have been facing financial problems and anti-corona operations have brought more trouble to them.

While issuing of the funds, the SFC has made it clear that they should be used for maintaining sanitation and anti-corona operations. It has been proposed to keep the GPs clean and to take up spray of chemicals to prevent spread of the virus.

The SFC funds would also consist of SC and ST component and the GPs have to spend specified amounts for the development activities for those communities of the villages.