Kochi: The restrictions imposed by the state government on withdrawals from the treasury has hit the implementation of several plan fund projects. As per the order issued on Friday, all bills above Rs 5 lakh will need ways and means clearance while the limit for clearing bills presented by local bodies was set at Rs 1 lakh/day. Though the formal order in this regard was issued on February 15, the curbs were in place for the past one month.The government had planned the completion of all plan fund projects (for 2018-19 fiscal) by January 31, 2019. So, it had given instructions to all local bodies to complete designing of projects, securing approvals from district planning council before April 1, 2018.Usually, local bodies finish these jobs by January with just two or three months left for implementation. Now, with these curbs in place, the expenditure from plan fund has just crossed 50%.“It has already affected the plan fund project implementation. When there is a liquidity crunch, government used to impose treasury restrictions. But, it is worse this time. It shows the state is facing a severe financial crisis,” said former member of planning board C P John, adding that these undeclared curbs were in effect for the past few days though government issued the order a few days ago.Local bodies said the restrictions imposed at this juncture have affected fund utilization. “We are facing troubles while clearing bills at the treasury. Owing to this, many contractors are not ready to take up works. This has affected the implementation of plan fund projects,” said chairperson of standing committee (development) at Kochi Corporation Gracy Joseph.“Unlike small local bodies, we have major projects and so the bill amount would be higher. So, putting restrictions (at Rs 5 lakh) has stalled almost all works. Small local bodies can clear bills of some projects. Government should increase the cap for corporations,” she said.The government has also banned releasing funds in advance. But, the ban won’t be applicable to election-related expenses. The government order instructs the treasury director to enforce the decision without delay. If there is any failure in this regard, it would be considered as failure in discharging duty.

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