DPC meet to focus on electricity, tourism and skill development

The administration will put a proposal before the district planning committee to focus on skill development for employment growth, settlement of power dispute cases of farmers to facilitate irrigation of their crops and demand provision for tourist places in the district, said district collector Sunil Chavan here on Thursday.

A meeting of the District Planning Committee (DPC) will be held under the chairmanship of guardian minister Subhash Desai on Friday. Giving more information, Chavan said that the original plan of the DPC is of Rs 325 crore. Out of this, 33 per cent grant will be sanctioned in the financial year 2020-21. Of this, 25 per cent will be spent on corona measures.

DPC grants have been reduced by 67 per cent. Out of the provision of Rs 325 crore, 33 per cent or around Rs 107 crore will now go to DPC. All funding for corona control is channeled through the DPC. Efforts are also underway to divert funds from other schemes to healthcare. As a result, all the works in the district, including infrastructure, have come to a halt. The works suggested by the people''s representatives are also stalled at present. There will be some provision for rains and development works.

GMCH totally relies on DPC funds

All the expenses incurred by the government medical college and hospital for Covid-19 and other measures have been borne by the grants of the DPC. The GMCH has not received any grant from the government for the last four months, so the expenditure of Rs 4 crore per month has been incurred by the planning committee. The district administration has requested the government for increased grants.

Issue of giving grants to the AMC will be raised

The grant from the DPC to the municipal corporation is likely to lead to a stormy discussion in Friday''s meeting. The people''s representatives will make demands in the meeting to spend grants from the DPC for health services in rural areas. This is likely to lead to a dispute between Shiv Sena and BJP.