TRS govt not released funds for Smart Cities project properly, alleges Union Minister

The ruling TRS in Telangana is falsely claiming that the Centre did not release even one rupee in the last three years for Smart Cities in the state, but it is the TRS government which did not allocate its share as part of the matching grant, Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy alleged on Wednesday.The Smart Cities Mission is a centrally-sponsored scheme with 5050 contribution between the Centre and the states....

The ruling TRS in Telangana is falsely claiming that the Centre did not release ''even one rupee'' in the last three years for Smart Cities in the state, but it is the TRS government which did not allocate its share as part of the matching grant, Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy alleged on Wednesday.

The Smart Cities Mission is a centrally-sponsored scheme with 50:50 contribution between the Centre and the states.

''... when one ascertains the facts, it becomes clear that this blame should squarely lie on the state government of Telangana which did not allocate its share as a part of the matching grant for the Smart Cities projects in Telangana,'' he said.

Telangana has been allocated two Smart cities under the national competitive Smart Cities Challenge. While Warangal was selected in May 2016, Karimnagar was selected in June 2017, Reddy said in a release.

For the Union government to release the next instalments, the state must release an equal matching share to the Smart City and that city should have utilised at least 75 per cent of funds (central funds along with state's matching share), he said.

As per the release schedule, by 2019-2020, the Centre had already released instalments of Rs 392 crore of a total budgetary allocation of Rs 1,000 crore, he said.

Telangana has been the ''most laggard state'' in transferring even the Central government's share to the Smart Cities, he claimed.

Moreover, despite repeated follow-ups, it has still not released its full state's share to the Smart cities.

From the financial year 2015-2016 till 2019-2020, the state government had neither made any matching grants nor efficiently utilised the amount released by the Government of India, he alleged.

Of a total of Rs 392 crore, approximately 80 per cent of the funds, were utilised in the last two financial years and 40 per cent of it was utilised in the last financial year of 2021-2022.

On the other hand, the state government released its matching state share for the first time, six years late, in the previous budget of 2021-2022, Reddy claimed.

A timely release of matching state share contribution of Telangana government would have ensured Warangal and Karimnagar to have better drainage and sewerage facilities and would have coped with the recent floods better, he said.

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