Need different budget planning for hill states: Shimla Mayor - Shimla Now

Shimla Mayor Surinder Chauhan today said there must be a separate provision of budget for hill states. He added that the Local Bodies Department should be attached with the Environment Department as municipal bodies carry out a number of environmental works and adequate funding can be received for developmental works. He was speaking during a two-day national-level conference underway in Delhi on "Improving WASH (Water, sanitation and hygiene) Service Delivery in the Indian Himalayan Region".

The conference was organised by the National Institute of Urban Affairs on the theme of Parvat Manthan which was attended by representatives of municipal bodies from hill states of Himachal, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and northeastern states who dwelt upon various aspects of water, sanitation and hygiene and development in hill states on the first day today.

Chauhan added, "Unlike plains, hill states have their own set of challenges therefore, there must be a provision to provide funding accordingly. For example, the cost of construction and maintenance of infrastructure is different from that in plains. We want these factors to be considered in the 16th Finance Commission which is to come soon. There are set rules and regulations in place to strengthen municipal bodies but they only remain on papers without anything concrete implemented at the ground level. So, we raised this concern during the conference."

Tikender Panwar, an eco-activist and former Deputy Mayor of Shimla, said, "We need a different financial governance architecture for mountain cities for the simple reason that they are on the brink of disaster. We need a different lens of viewing issues concerning mountain cities. The copy-paste model for plains or the one-size-fits-all approach won't work here. Further, we need to strengthen our disaster adaptability and enhance our capacity-building."

Panwar added, "This is indeed a welcome move as representatives of municipal bodies from hill states or mountain cities have converged on a single platform to share views and exchange ideas on different aspects of development, disaster management and scope for improvement."

The Mayor said, "As an MC, we carry out work of removing plastic waste, channelisation of nullahs, ensure drainage of sewage and water, garbage collection (cleaning and segregation), plant trees and undertake measures to ensure beautification of our environment. So, the work of local bodies and that of the Environment Department is inter-linked so if these departments are attached together, we can get adequate funding.