more-in Mayor Soumini Jain put up a brave face in the Kochi Corporation council meeting and claimed that the civic body would make good use of the annual Plan funds before the March 31 deadline. Ms. Jain claimed that several factors, which operated beyond the control of the civic body, had affected its performance regarding the utilisation of annual Plan funds. There were restrictions on clearing the bills in the State Treasury during the first 10 days and last few days of every month, which also reflected in the spending of the local body. Bills worth a few crore were pending clearance in the treasury. Once the bills were cleared, spending would automatically improve, she claimed. Kochi, when compared to the other corporations, had listed significant number of projects to be implemented during the current fiscal. “While some projects will be implemented during two consecutive years, some others may have to be dropped as they cannot be completed within the stipulated time,” she said. The protracted agitations of the contractors had negatively influenced the performance of the local body. A large number of posts of officials, who were supposed to lead the implementation of projects, remain vacant. The posts remained unfulfilled despite drawing the attention of the State government to the issue, she said. The unutilised funds would not be lapsed as it could be used for paying the share of the Urban Local Body towards projects such as Smart City, LIFE Mission and clearing the arrears of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, she said.

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