Haryana chief minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that the state government has formulated new schemes for urban and rural development under Rajiv Gandhi Urban Development Mission, and Rs 2,500 crore and Rs 5,000 crore would be spent for urban and rural development, respectively.

Hooda was addressing the elected representatives of local bodies and panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) in a seminar organised by Haryana State Administrative Reforms Commission at Karnal on Thursday.

The chief minister said every year, Rs 500 crore would be spent for urban development and Rs 1,000 crore for rural development in a phased manner. Hooda announced to set up training centres at divisions level, on the pattern of Haryana Rural Development Training Centre at Nilokheri, so as to apprise the elected representatives of panchayati raj institutions about their functioning.

Hooda said every year Rs 38.50 crore would be spent for development of 10 villages in each district. He also stressed the need for bringing transparency in utilisation of funds. He said decentralisation of powers was necessary for the success of democracy.

Hooda said that it was the duty of public representatives to provide benefits of government schemes to common man. PRIs would have to increase their resources in addition to the assistance of the government and only then we would be able to carry out development in real sense. He appealed to the representatives of local bodies to adopt Matching Grant Yojna as the government had started Rajiv Gandhi Shehri Bhagidhari Yojana and Rs 10 crore had been earmarked during current financial year under the scheme. He said that 60% amount would be shared by state government and the remaining 40 per cent would be arranged through local participation.

Hooda said that present government has made amendment in the Rule 72 of the Haryana Municipal Committee Election Rules 1978 under which provision of no-confidence motion against presidents and vice-presidents had been made after one year of election whereas earlier this period was six months. This would benefit the president as he would work for a minimum period of one year.

Hooda congratulated the elected representatives of local bodies and PRI’s for their contribution in conducting fair and peaceful election last year.

He said that Congress supported candidates had won 34 seats out of total 39 seats in 22 Municipal Committees, 15 Municipal Councils and two Municipal Corporations.

The chief minister said urban local bodies have been given more than Rs.76 crore on the recommendations of 2nd State Finance Commission and Rs144 crore have also been given at the rate of Rs 1 crore per ward having more than 50% population of scheduled castes. Apart from this, 3rd Finance Commission had been constituted, he added.

Hooda said that municipal committees of Loharu, Hathin, Farukhnagar, Jullana, Ateli Mandi and Kanina which were abolished by the previous government, have been restored. New Municipal Committees have been formed at Sampala, Nissing and Dharuhera. Seven new Municipal Corporations were being set up and boundary of 11 Municipal Committees had been extended. Honorarium of Presidents and Vice-Presidents of Municipal Committees and Councils and of Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Municipal Corporation had been increased.

While referring to the suggestions made by the elected representatives at the function, Hooda said that proposals could be sent for parking places in Municipal Committees. He said that recruitment was going on to meet the shortage of technical staff. He said that coordination committees should be constituted at district and sub division level so that developmental projects could be implemented smoothly. He said that such interactions should be organized every year as this helped in understanding problems for their redressal.

Hooda also released a report on the working of Public Works (Building and Roads) Department brought out by Administrative Reforms Commission.

Urban Local Bodies Minister Mr Mahender Partap Singh said that the house tax was being simplified. He said that the massive development was made in last five years and that has no parallel to the development made in 40 years.

Chief Parliamentary Secretary Sharda Rathore urged the elected representatives to apprise the people about welfare programmes of the State Government. She said that elected representatives were a bridge between administration and the common man. She suggested that a day should be fixed by municipal bodies to issue certificates like that of deaths and births and maps of houses.