Odisha: Centre allocates 333 crore for panchayati raj institutions

Doctors attend to patients at a district Covid health centre set up in a government-run ITI hostel

BHUBANESWAR: The panchayati raj institutions (PRI) in Odisha on Sunday received Rs 333 crore after the Centre released the first instalment of the untied (unconditional) grants for 2021-22 financial year as per recommendation of the 15th Finance Commission.
The grant is meant for all the three tiers of PRIs — gram panchayats, panchayat samitis and zilla parishads — while the amount can be utilized for various preventive and mitigation measures to combat Covid-19 at the district, block and panchayat level among others, said an official.
“Though the untied grant was supposed to be released to the PRIs in June, it has been released in advance to help the states with adequate resources to fight the pandemic effectively,” said a senior government official.
Official sources said the amount can be utilized for management of cluster temporary medical camps (TMCs), which are being used as quarantine centres for the returnees, establishment of dedicated Covid care centres at the block level, development of health infrastructure locally, procurement of healthcare-related equipment and other mitigation strategies to check spread of the virus. The state panchayati raj department is likely to issue a guideline for smooth utilization of the amount.
As part of the state government’s decentralized method of handling the pandemic, role of the PRIs was instrumental during the first wave of the Covid-19, especially in managing over 16,000 TMCs which were used to quarantine over 10 lakh migrants who had returned from various states during the nationwide lockdown.
Release of the grant has also triggered political slugfest between the BJD and BJP in the state. Though the BJD welcomed the Centre’s decision to release the grant in advance, party’s Rajya Sabha member Amar Patnaik said the Centre should also release the second instalment in advance to help the states.
“We appreciate the Centre’s decision to release the untied grants in advance. If Rs 333 crore has to be divided among various districts, each district will get about Rs 10-11 crore only. The chief minister has already released more resources to the districts from the chief minister’s relief fund and from other sources. Hence, the Centre should release more money to help the states handle the pandemic effectively,” Patnaik said.
BJP leader Prithiviraj Harichandan thanked the Union government saying the Centre has always extended full cooperation to the states to effectively handle the pandemic situation.

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