No guidelines for fund use by panchayats

Rajiv Mahajan

Nurpur, November 21

The delay in issuing requisite guidelines and directions for spending funds allocated to gram panchayats for undertaking rural development works under the 15th Finance Commission has put panchayat secretaries and block development officials in a dilemma.

The Nurpur development block has 43 gram panchayats and most of them have got partial funds allocated in their accounts under the 15th Finance Commission from the Union Government. However, the state government has not issued any guidelines or directions for spending these funds for carrying out development activities in the gram panchayats. The panchayat pradhans are unable to use the funds for rural development.

The gram panchayat elections are round the corner and the model code of conduct can be enforced anytime. Udhay Singh Pathania, Zila Parishad member from Nurpur, has appealed to the state government to direct the Rural Development Department to issue guidelines and directions for spending the allocated funds.

Enquiries made by The Tribune reveal that the Nurpur development block is yet to spend Rs 5 crore of the 14th Finance Commission. Around Rs 3 crore works are going on in different gram panchayats for which the state government has given a fresh deadline for their completion till March 31 next year. Intriguingly, the remaining Rs 2 crore works could not be executed as these were not planned as per the guidelines issued by the Government of India. Now, the gram panchayats have been asked to deviate their pre-schedule works and submit fresh ones so that the same could be completed by the end of March next year.

Rohit Sharma, Block Development Officer, Nurpur, said that his focus was to use the unspent funds of the 14th Finance Commission before the deadline.