JHADC takes up non-award of grants to autonomous district councils
JOWAI: The Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) in Meghalaya failed to obtain any sanction from the 14th Finance Commission as the ADCs had not been included in the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Finance Commission by the union government.
ADCs in the State had received grants from the 11th, 12th and 13th Finance Commissions for strengthening the hands of the district council to improve its administration and also to facilitate improvement in the socio-economic life of the people at the grass root level.
Unfortunately, the 14th Finance Commission did not make any recommendation for devolution of financial assistance to the ADCs for the period 2015-20 for the lone reason that the district councils had been excluded from the ToR of the Commission.
“To include ADCs in the ToR, Article 280 of the Constitution needs to be amended which was initiated by the Union Home Ministry in 2012,” informed JHADC Chief Executive Member (CEM) Thombor Shiwat.
He said that the 13th Finance Commission was yet to release Rs.57.57 crore which is set to expire by March 31.
The 13th Finance Commission had awarded grants of Rs.72.56 crore for 2010-2015 out of which only Rs.14.99 crore was released to the JHADC.
According to the JHADC chief, a utilization certificate for an amount of Rs.13.91 crore was submitted and the work on the remaining Rs.1.08 crore was in progress.
It may be noted that the JHADC had received Rs.3.84 crore from the 11th Finance Commission (2000-05) and Rs.6 crore from the 12th Finance Commission (2005-10).
The JHADC Executive Committee led by Shiwat had recently met Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, and apprised him of the matter.
The EC had requested Rijiju to ensure that the sum of Rs.57.57 crore be released by the centre at the earliest.
“The release of this amount is very vital as it will enable the Council to continue implementation of on-going projects beside others committed schemes according to the aspiration of the people,” JHADC EM in charge of Market, A. Andrew Shullai, said.
The Executive Committee also urged the Union MoS to ensure that Article 180 of the Constitution is amended.
“Unless this Article is amended, the 14th Finance Commission will continue to treat areas under Autonomous District Councils as excluded areas,” the EC said.
The EC further requested the union government to provide adequate grant to the JHADC under Article 275 (1) of the Constitution.