KOCHI: The Ernakulam district panchayat, which bagged the Swaraj Trophy for second best district panchayat in the state for the 2016-17 fiscal, looks set to take off from where it had left off in the previous financial year. With barely hours remaining for utilisation of Plan funds under the current fiscal, Ernakulam district panchayat is leading the pack. If indeed they go on to take the top spot as expected, it will be yet another feather in the cap for the district panchayat. As per the District Planning Commission data, Ernakulam district panchayat has utilised nearly 84.09 per cent of its Rs 56.32 crore annual fund allocation.
“The hard work and dedication of the local body staff helped us to reach the top position. We were lagging in the 13th position hardly a month ago,” said a visibly happy Asha Sanil, district panchayat president. The district panchayat utilised 86.67 per cent of the funds allocated for Scheduled Castes and 76.6 per cent of the allocation for Scheduled Tribes. “ We had appointed implementing officers in each block to monitor the implementation of the projects. Besides, a follow-up meeting was held every week to keep tabs at every stage. This also helped us to attain this,” said Asha.
According to her, the district panchayat’s achievement came in spite of tardy fund utilisation owing to the demonetisation fallout and implementation of the new tax regime. However, despite the district panchayat’s exploits, the Kochi Corporation presented a comparatively dismal picture, utilising only 73.96 per cent of Rs 106.94 crore allocated to it. “Though the government issued guidelines for the fund utilisation, the Corporation adopted a lethargic attitude. Though the Corporation utilised 73 per cent of fund utilisation the quality of works needs to be assessed,” said Leader of Opposition K J Antony.