Not holding elections of local bodies on time has cost the state government dear as the Central government has frozen s the amounts due to the state almost to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore.
The state government was being held responsible, irrespective of litigations in court, for not holding elections to both Panchayati Raj and municipal bodies for the last two years. Although the state government represented the matter to the Union panchayati raj ministry more than half-a-dozen times to release funds due to the state, the Centre refused to do so. “I am told that about Rs 2,000crore has been frozen since last year, we had taken up the matter with the concerned Union minister, Kishore Chandra Deo,” state panchayati raj minister K. Jana Reddy told this newspaper on Wednesday.
As far as funds related to the municipal administration department under JNNURM is concerned, the Union urban affairs ministry also froze funds amounting to Rs 700 to Rs 1000 crore due for the state, again on the same ground of not holding polls to over 100 municipal bodies. “We have been telling them that the fault of not holding elections of Panchayati Raj bodies was not of the state government alone. We are ready, but there are some cases pending in court and the process has been stayed, there are also problems like fixing 50 per cent quota for reservations,” Mr Jana Reddy told this correspondent.
He said that state government would once again inform the Union government that, “We are ready to hold polls immediately after the vacation of stay orders by the Court. Meanwhile, we would continue to plead for the release of the funds due to the state.” With regard to urban affairs ministry freezing the funds for the municipalities, a senior official in the state municipal administration department said, “The state government is ready to hold elections. But a peculiar problem has arisen with regard to taking census data of 2001 or 2011, without compromising on the reservations to various weaker sections. We will take a decision by next week and inform AP High Court accordingly.” Both the panchayati raj and municipal administration departments in the state affirm that freezing of funds would affect the implementation of all ongoing and proposed schemes.