VIJAYAWADA: In a relief to fund-starved urban local bodies, state govt has decided to transfer funds pooled from layout regularisation scheme (LRS) and building regularisation scheme (BRS). Govt has directed the director of town and country planning to transfer about 112 crore to 40 municipalities across the state.
Municipal administration minister P Narayana said the govt is taking measures to strengthen the financial base of urban local bodies to take up various developmental works. He said the previous YSRCP regime stifled the urban local bodies by not releasing a penny. “Their autonomy was destroyed as even small contractor bill payment was taken away from urban civic bodies. YSRCP govt completely neglected the development of towns and cities by taking away their financial autonomy. We are restoring their powers to take up various developmental works,” said Narayana.
In addition to transfer of LRS/BRS funds to about 40 urban civic bodies, the govt has also decided to restore the powers of clearing bills to the municipalities from April. “Local bodies commissioners/chairpersons need not forward any pending bills for clearance to the central financial management system (CFMS) in the finance ministry in the secretariat. While the govt is paying the salaries and pensions of employees and retired employees, civic bodies are at liberty to spend revenues at their end to expedite the developmental works,” Narayana added.
Municipal administration principal secretary S Suresh Kumar asked civic bodies to utilise the funds to maintain water supply, street lighting, drains, parks and road construction works. The govt has allocated funds to different municipalities based on their population to attend immediate civic works.
