In order to improve the deteriorating financial condition and economic crisis of the local bodies, the special committee of the Lok Sabha has recommended a solution to the crisis by issuing bonds. This report has been tabled in Lok Sabha by Jagdambika Pal, Chairman, Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs. In the report, the committee recognized that raising funds through municipal bonds is a component in schemes such as AMRUT and Smart Cities Mission (SCM). At the same time, the committee has also caught the negligence of the bodies on the financial front.
The committee has pointed out that through the bond initiative various corporations like Ghaziabad, Lucknow and 10 other cities have done credit rating assessment and have been successful in raising funds from the market. However, only New Delhi Palika bonds have been issued in Delhi corporations. In the report, the committee has told that the condition of these corporations is very bad and the plan has not been approved by the competent authorities of Delhi. Therefore, by working on the civic bond policy, find a way out of the financial crisis.
80 percent used funds in Smart Urban Mission: The Ministry had selected 11 cities under Smart Cities Mission. Till now only the first installment i.e. 10 percent amount was released to these cities. The committee has told in the report that 80 percent could not use this amount, because they did not claim for the claim amount in the second phase.
At the same time, it has come to the fore in the investigation that the certificates of the works of the corporations of the previous years have not been received yet. Therefore, the committee has given clear instructions that till the certificate of grant is not received by the ministry, no further amount should be released to the bodies. Also, the committee has recommended in its report that in future, elected representatives should be included in the construction phase of the projects. In these, local body, assembly and ward level and MP members should also be included in this process. This will enable smooth operation at the time of inspection.