Question : Streetlighting of Villages

(a) whether the Government has provided funds for streetlighting of villages, if so, the details of fund allocated during each of the last five years particularly in the State of Assam;
(b) the number of villages of the State of Assam where streetlighting of villages have been completed and the number of villages yet to be completed, share district-wise list;
(c) whether there is any time-frame for providing street lights in all the villages of the State, if so, the details thereof;
(d) the amount of fund provided by 15th Finance Commission and utilised by panchayat during the said period;
(e) whether there is any monitoring committee in the State of Assam to monitor the progress; and
(f) whether the Members of Parliament (MPs)involved in the Monitoring committee since the fund is provided by the Government, if not, the time by which MPs are likely to be involved?

THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR PANCHAYATI RAJ

(SHRI KAPIL MORESHWAR PATIL)

(a) Under the Fourteenth Finance Commission (XIV FC) award for the period of 2015-2020, grants to the tune of Rs. 2,00,292.20 crore were allocated to Gram Panchayats (GPs) in 26 States. The grants were provided to GPs for delivering basic services including street-lighting. Under Fifteenth Finance Commission (XV FC), grants to the tune of Rs. 60,750 crore are allocated for the interim period FY 2020-21 and Rs.2,36,805 crore are allocated for the period FY 2021-26 to Panchayats in all the three tiers and Traditional Local Bodies and Sixth Schedule areas in 28 States. The Grants are in two parts namely Basic (Untied) Grants and Tied Grants. The Untied Grants can be utilised for felt needs on 29 subjects enshrined under Schedule XI of the Constitution including street lighting. The details of fund allocated under Central Finance Commission during each of the last five years to all States including Assam are given at Annexure.

Further, State Government of Assam has informed that no specific funds for street lighting of villages have been allocated for Panchayats, though from the fund of the XIV FC Grants, solar street lights were provided in some villages as decided by the Gram Sabha and as per the Annual Action Plan.

(b) State Government of Assam has informed that as solar street lights were installed only in some specific locations, question of completing the villages with street lights does not arise.

(c) No, Sir. The Panchayats incur expenditure on basic services as per their approved Panchayat Development Plan based on locally felt needs and priorities.

(d) The amount of funds allocated and released by the Central Government under XV FC and utilized by the Panchayats in the State of Assam is as given under:

(Rs. in crore)
FY Allocation Release Utilized*
2020-21 1604.00 1604.00 193.06
2021-22 1186.00 593.00 06.64
Total 2790.00 2197.00 199.70
(*Source: Information provided by State Government of Assam)

(e) To ensure proper utilization of the XV FC Grants, the following Committees exist in the State of Assam:

SL No Name of the Committees
1 High Level Monitoring Committee (State level)
2 District Level Advisory Cum Monitoring Committee
3 Block Level Advisory Cum Monitoring Committee

(f) The State Government of Assam has informed that they have no such guidelines to involve Hon’ble Member of Parliaments in the monitoring of the Finance Commission Grants.


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