3 days left for Corpn. to utilise half of its annual Plan funds

With just three working days left in the fiscal, the Kochi Corporation faces the uphill task of spending nearly half of its annual Plan funds.

The dash board maintained by the Local SelfGovernment department on the plan progress of local government institutions for the 202324 fiscal indicates that the Corporation could utilise only ₹44.58 crore, which accounts for 49.17% of its annual allocation.

The annual allocation for the Corporation was to the tune of ₹90.66 crore. Interestingly, the civic body is the second highest achiever in the State in terms of utilising Plan funds. The Thiruvananthapuram Corporation topped the list by spending ₹120.49 crore, which is 58.71% of its annual budget of ₹205.22 crore.

“The financial crunch of the State government has hit local bodies hard. The cash flow from the State government to local bodies has almost stopped, which has virtually stalled all the development activities in local bodies across the State,” said Antony Kureethara, the leader of the Congress in the Kochi Corporation Council.

Many bills of completed projects are in queue, awaiting payment from the State government. The Corporation too had failed to plan and implement projects systematically, said Mr. Kureethara.

Civic administrators too concede that the poor financial condition of the State government had hit the performance of the civic body. Payment for a large number of completed projects was pending, they admitted.

The civic authorities hoped that the local body would be able to improve its spending in the next few days.