New Delhi, Feb 19 (IANS) The Centre on Wednesday released grants to the tune of Rs 1,086.06 crore under the Fifteenth Finance Commission to the Rural Local Bodies of Bihar, Haryana and Sikkim for financial year 2024–25.
Bihar has been given the 2nd instalment of Untied Grants amounting to Rs 821.80 crore and withheld portion of 1st instalment of Untied Grants amounting to Rs.47.9339 crore.
These funds are for all 38 District Panchayats, 530 eligible Block Panchayats and 8,052 eligible Gram Panchayats which fulfilled the mandatory conditions for the release of funds.
Rural Local Bodies in Haryana will get the 2nd instalment of Untied Grants amounting to Rs.202.47 crore and the withheld portion of the 1st instalment of Untied Grants amounting to Rs.7.5993 crore. These funds are for the 18 eligible District Panchayats, 142 eligible Block Panchayats and 6,195 eligible Gram Panchayats.
Sikkim has received the 2nd instalment of Untied Grants amounting to Rs 6.26 crore during Financial Year 2024–25. These funds are for the 4 eligible District Panchayats and 186 eligible Gram Panchayats which fulfilled the mandatory conditions for release.
The Untied Grants will be utilised by Panchayati Raj Institutions/Rural Local Bodies for location-specific felt needs, under the 29 subjects enshrined in the Eleventh Schedule of the Constitution, except for salaries and other establishment costs.
The Tied Grants can be used for the basic services of sanitation and maintenance of Open Defecation-Free status, and this should include management and treatment of household waste, and human excreta and faecal sludge management in particular and supply of drinking water, rainwater harvesting and water recycling.
Earlier in January this year, the Union Government released tax devolution of Rs 1,73,030 crore to state governments, up from the devolution of Rs 89,086 crore in December 2024.
A higher amount was devolved in January to enable states to accelerate capital spending and finance their development and welfare-related expenditures. As many as 26 states were listed in the package.
The funds released included Rs 13,017.06 crore for West Bengal, Rs 7,002.5 crore for Andhra Pradesh, Rs 6,310 crore for Karnataka, Rs 5,412 crore for Assam, Rs 5,895 crore for Chhattisgarh, Rs 14,317 crore for Himachal Pradesh, Rs 3,330.83 crore for Kerala, Rs 3,126.65 crore for Punjab and Rs 7,057.89 crore for Tamil Nadu.
Among the other states Uttar Pradesh has got Rs 31,039.84 crore, Maharashtra Rs 10,930.31 crore, Gujarat has got Rs 6,017 crore, Madhya Pradesh Rs 13,582.86 crore, Manipur Rs 1,238.9 crore and Meghalaya Rs 1,327.13 crore.