Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, and Tripura were among the 25 states that received grants for the rural local bodies (RLBs).

The Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, on May 8 released an amount of Rs. 8,923.8 crore to these States for providing grants to the Rural Local Bodies (RLBs).

The grants are meant for all the three tiers of Panchayati Raj Institutions – village, block and district.

As per the release, Arunachal Pradesh received Rs 34 crore, Assam received Rs 237.2 crore, Manipur Rs 26.2 crore, Mizoram 13.8 crore, Sikkim Rs 6.2 crore, and Tripura received Rs 28.2 crore.

The amount released is the first instalment of the ‘Untied Grants’ for the year 2021-22 and this may be utilised by the RLBs, among other things, for various prevention and mitigation measures needed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

It will augment resources to the three tiers of Panchayats for fighting the contagion.

As per the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission, the 1stinstalment of untied grants was to be released to the States in the month of June 2021.

However, given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic situation and at the recommendation of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, the Ministry of Finance has decided to release the grant in advance of the normal schedule.

Moreover, the 15thFinance Commission had imposed certain conditions for the release of untied grants.

The conditions include online availability of accounts of a certain percentage of Rural Local Bodies in the public domain.

But taking into consideration the prevailing circumstances, this condition has been waived for release of the first instalment of untied grants.

The state-wise amount of the grant released is given below

State-Wise 1st Instalment of RLBs Released For 2021-22