ADILABAD: Better days are ahead for village panchayats who are perennially hard up for funds. No more endless and painful waiting for the transfer of both State and Central funds to panchayats by the State government.
The new arrangement is that the Centre would directly transfer its share of funds to the villages. It has already asked the sarpanches to open new bank accounts for it to transfer the funds.
As per the practice prevalent till now, the Centre would transfer funds as recommended by the Fifteenth Finance Commission (FFC) to the State government, which in turn is supposed to transfer it to the village panchayats along with its share.
As the State government is always in a financial straitjacket, more often than not, the funds lie locked in the treasury. The State government would release neither the Central funds received nor its share of funds. Though the money is visible in the treasury, there is an unannounced freeze on it, and as a result, the funds are held in the treasury itself.
In some instances, after receiving the funds from the Centre, the State would inform the villages that it had adjusted them against its utility bills. In reality, the State, it is alleged, does not transfer the funds to the power utilities either, as a result of which they too languish.
Following a circular recently issued by the Centre to panchayat officers, the new accounts are now being opened in the name of sarpanch and upa sarpanch. The village panchayats in the erstwhile Adilabad district are already on the job. After the opening of a new account, the village panchayats will have two accounts, one to receive the State government’s grant and the other for the Centre’s. It may be mentioned here that the grants are released on the basis of 2011 census.
Good news: sarpanches
According to a sarpanch, the new scheme of things would be of great help. “At present, we’re going through a tough time. For instance, making payments to contractors who lay roads. They insist on payments. We sometimes raise loans at high-interest rates to pay them,” he said