UDF accuses LDF Government of bleeding local bodies to death

The Opposition UDF staged a walk out in the Assembly on Tuesday charging the Pinarayi Vijayan government of employing unprecedented and illegal means to deprive local bodies of even their budget allocation.

"The government has passed two orders, on June 6 and July 5, that took away funds allocated for local bodies in the 2022-23 Kerala Budget," said Muslim League MLA Najeeb Kanthapuram while moving an adjournment motion on the issue in the Assembly. "This has rendered the entire Budget a sham," he said.

He said the local bodies draw up their plans on the basis of budget allocation. Kanthapuram said that maintenance grants in the general and non-road categories had been cut, causing serious uncertainty in their planning process.

Opposition Leader V D Satheesan termed the two government orders illegal. "The orders essentially say that this fiscal's budget allocation drawn up by the Finance Department was faulty and revises the allocation according to the previous 2021-22 Budget figures. Since the Budget has been passed, this makes a mockery of even Assembly proceedings, " Satheesan said.

He said the local bodies were also taken unawares by the government's action. "The government orders came after the local bodies had gone through the entire planning process like grama sabha meetings, working groups and development seminars. The orders were issued at the data entry stage," Satheesan said.

The Opposition Leader also said that the failure of the government to draw up the 14th Five Year Plan guidelines on time had caused huge delay in finalising local body plans.

Minister for local bodies M V Govindan Master conceded that there was a delay but said it was natural when guidelines were to be drawn up for a new Five Year Plan. Satheesan said the guidelines should have been drawn up by January itself. "This delay will leave local bodies less than a quarter to implement this year's plan," Satheesan said.

The minister, in his reply, said that certain district panchayats like Malappuram, Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram did witness a fall in maintenance grants when compared to last fiscal. Ernakulam District Panchayat, for instance, was allocated just ₹ 10.57 crore in place of ₹ 61.04 crore last fiscal.

For Thiruvananthapuram, it was ₹ 2.12 crore compared to ₹ 47.05 crore in 2021-22 fiscal. "This is why the two government orders made sure these panchayats recieved at least the same amount they secured last fiscal," Govindan said.

However, Satheesan said the increased allocation did not cover general and non-road maintenance grants of local bodies.