Fin Commission chief meets UP urban local bodies; Rs 2.80 lakh cr sought for development

Finance Commission Chairman N K Singh on Monday held meeting with representatives of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) of Uttar Pradesh, which demanded Rs 2,80,520.75 crore for urban infrastructure development for 2020-25 period.

In a break-up, Rs 1,43,161.2 crore is being sought for development of sewerage and sanitation infrastructure; Rs 73,982.18 crore for urban transport and traffic management, MRTS/BRTS, followed by Rs 25,390.51 crore for drainage and Rs 13,637.5 crore for municipal road development.

In addition, Rs 11,347.6 crore for safe drinking water, Rs 7,706.04 crore for solid waste management and Rs 5,295.72 crore for street lighting have been demanded, an official release said.

The 15th Finance Commission was informed that of the 18 functions to be devolved in terms of XII schedule of the Constitution, only eight functions have been fully devolved.

The state has set up a Property Tax Board as recommended by FC-XIII. The board is a functional body and gives opinion/recommendations on various issues connected to ULBs finances relating to strengthening of financial health of the ULBs, the Commission was informed.

"All Urban Local Bodies have been fully empowered to levy Property tax," Singh was informed as quoted by the release.

Issues related to additional resources for development works and special civil works, tourism, maintenance of infrastructure and heavy machinery, falling ground water levels and need for water recycling plants, greening of municipalities, were also discussed among others.

The Commission noted all the concerns highlighted by the representatives of the ULBs and promised to address them in its recommendations to the central government, the release said.

Besides, representatives of the trade and industry bodies and Rural Local Bodies in Uttar Pradesh also met Singh and other senior officials of the Commission.

It observed that the state is facing challenges in decreasing share of secondary sector in GSDP as the share of secondary sector in 2017-18 dropped to 22.8 per cent from 26.7 per cent in 2011-12.

This may have strong implications on employment, the Commission said.

Among others, it also noted that the state has regional backwardness and has large variation in terms of land, soil, rainfall and climate.

Of the four regions (Western, Central, Eastern and Bundelkhand), Eastern and Bundelkhand regions lag far behind in the race of overall development in key sectors of power, industrial development and transport, the release said.

Also, it was observed that power plays an important role in economic infrastructure but the per capita power consumption (2016-17) is lowest in eastern region as also the industrial development in the state is not uniform.