Ghaziabad DM says will term panchayats ‘kanjoos’ if funds aren’t used as 67% capital remains

Taking serious note of unutilised funds by the gram panchayats, the district magistrate on Tuesday appointed four nodal officers for the four development blocks

Taking serious note of unutilised funds by the gram panchayats, the district magistrate on Tuesday appointed four nodal officers for the four development blocks of Ghaziabad, which have a total of 161 gram panchayats. According to officials, the entities had been allotted a combined fund of about ₹82 crore for the current financial year, of which only about ₹27.30 crore has been utilised so far.

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The DM appointed as modal officers the project officer of district urban development authority, the chief development officer, the district Panchayati Raj officer and the district social welfare officer, responsible for the development blocks of Bhojpur, Loni, Muradnagar and Razapur, respectively.

“The nodal officers have been asked to chalk out a route map for different public utilities and local level infrastructure projects such as roads, street lighting, solid waste disposal and drinking water, among others. Usually the gram panchayats say that they don’t have funds. However, on a micro-level examination, we found that about 67% funds have remained unutilised,” DM Ajay Shankar Pandey, said.

He said that the gram panchayats who do not utilise funds allotted to them will be termed as “kanjoos panchayats” (miser panchayats) and that the gram pradhans will also be termed likewise.

“There are only about two-and-a-half months left for the current fiscal to end and the pending amount, if it remains un-utilised, will have to be deposited back in the treasury of the state government. So, we have asked the nodal officers to expedite projects and get them executed. A quality check and review of the projects will also be taken up,” he added.

According to official records, the Bhojpur block has 47 gram panchayats and was allotted approximately ₹47 crore of which ₹30.66 crore are pending. The Loni block has 32 panchayats with fund allotment of about ₹32 crore, out of which ₹8.48 crore are pending. Areas in Loni face issues of bad roads, proper sanitation and drinking water, among others.

The Muradnagar block has 48 gram panchayats with un-utilised funds of about ₹6.15 crore out of allotted ₹48 crore. The Razapur block has 34 gram panchayats which were allotted a combined fund of about ₹34 crore of which ₹10.12 crore are pending funds.

Officials said that panchayat elections are likely to be held by the end of 2020, which is why the panchayats have been asked to make proper use of their funds else it would be returned to the state government.