66 municipalities in Gujarat used only 50% or less grant

Gandhinagar

Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel today said that out of the 162 municipalities in the state, 66 municipalities used only 50 per cent of the grant given by the government last year, or even less than that.

The CM took urban civic bodies and their elected representatives to task on various issues including under- utilisation of funds while speaking at a function to distribute cheques of grants to the civic bodies here.

She also rapped the officials and elected representatives for slow pace of construction of toilets, maintenance of cleanliness, etc.

“Out of 162 municipalities, 66 municipalities have used only 50 per cent grant disbursed by the government last year.

Some of them have used only 20 per cent. Due to such lackadaisical approach, people get disappointed as they feel you have failed to fulfil their expectations,” said Patel.

“These civic bodies have to give explanation about non-utilisation of funds….I even asked the Urban Development secretary to be strict and stop further disbursement to those civic bodies which have utilised less than 40 per cent funds,” she said.

She also asked the civic bodies to expedite the work of building toilets to make the state open-defecation free by the end of this month.

PTI