The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government will allocate ₹350 crore under the Swaraj Fund in the upcoming budget for the coming fiscal with an equal amount allocated under the same head set to lapse in the current financial year due to lack of utilisation.
Also known as the Citizen Local Area Development (C-LAD) Fund, all development work under the Swaraj Fund was to be decided through mohalla sabhas or public assemblies consisting of local residents, but the said funds remained unutilised as the proposal to constitute mohalla sabhas is yet to receive a nod from the office of the Lieutenant-Governor.
A senior Delhi government official said that the government expects the proposal to be cleared in the coming financial year.
Mohalla sabhas are among the flagship projects of the AAP government and aims at decentralisation of governance by ensuring citizen participation in decision making. These were conducted in 11 assembly segments including Karawal Nagar in May 2015 as a pilot project.
Development works worth ₹50 lakh in each of the 11 assembly segment were decided in these meetings and the government now wants to take these to each of the 70 Assembly constituencies in the Capital.
However, the government has not been able to notify them and, consequently, conduct public meetings as the Cabinet decision approving the same is pending with Raj Niwas for past several months.
According to the official, the matter was even brought to the attention of L-G Anil Baijal by a senior member of the Delhi Cabinet recently where Mr. Baijal was also requested to expedite the clearance of the file related to it.
In June 2016, the Delhi Cabinet had cleared proposal to constitute 2,972 mohalla sabhas, besides creating a project management unit (PMU) called Mission Swaraj to co-ordinate the entire project. Both proposals were then sent to the L-G Najeeb Jung for his approval.
