Last month the Finance Department of the state government ordered the unspent funds distributed to the local governing bodies in the financial year 2021-22, to be deposited back. Nashik Zilla Parishad had deposited unspent funds of Rs 117 crores. In a similar manner, the local governing bodies in most of the districts returned the funds. However, after a month, the deadline has been extended to February 28, 2024, to spend this unspent fund.
The deadline for local governing bodies to spend funds for works beyond 2021, was March 2023. But, the unspent funds were not deposited by the local governing bodies in the district treasury till June 30. Therefore, the Finance Department had given a deadline of September 11. It was also ordered not to sanction the payments of these local governing bodies against not returning unspent funds within the given period. Due to this, most of the local governing bodies in the state deposited unspent funds. Notably, the Nashik Zilla Parishad had deposited the unspent funds of Rs 27 crores received from the District Planning Committee and Rs 90 crores received from other departments to the district treasury. However, as most of the other local governing bodies in the state did not comply, the Finance Department reviewed this unspent fund once again this month. The Finance Department has given permission to spend this fund till February 28, 2024, to resolve the issue. Even within that period, it has been made mandatory to deposit the unspent funds with the government till March 5, 2024, and disciplinary action has been warned against the officials who fail to do so.