UP govt starts drive to make municipal bodies financially viable & self-sufficient

New Delhi: In a bid to give Gross Domestic Product (GDP) a boost, the Uttar Pradesh government has directed the officials to understand the potential of every district and regularly review ways to make them financially self-sufficient.

Issuing the directives, the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, while addressing a high-level meeting on Wednesday, stated, “To take advantage of the potential of every district, we have to make efforts in a planned manner. The urban bodies will have to make concerted efforts to increase the income of all the districts.”

In order to strengthen the municipal bodies, municipal corporations and gram panchayats that are incurring losses at the moment, the government machinery is ensuring 100 percent recovery of other taxes like house tax and water tax.

Efforts are also being made to make urban bodies efficient and financially self-reliant through the schemes of the Central and State Governments. “With the strengthening of the municipal bodies, we will be able to ensure that all the districts are clean and people are getting all basic facilities.

The state government gave strict instructions in view of the upcoming rainy season. “The authorities must ensure that the drains are properly cleaned and there is no silt accumulation. Steps should be taken to ensure that there is no water logging in any area of the state. The works done so far under the AMRUT scheme should be thoroughly reviewed. Instead of just trying to keep the cities clean, we should also focus on making them beautiful,” said the CM.

The Yogi government has also directed the officials to seek help from people, public representatives and social organisations to make the districts clean and beautiful.

Furthermore, the government is also taking energy conservation very seriously and has instructed the officials to ensure street lights are turned on and switched off in a timely manner.