State gets Rs 50 crore central grant for setting up municipal services centres: Minister

The Central Government has sanctioned Rs 50 crore for the establishment of municipal shared services centres (MSSCs) for the National Data Centre in Himachal Pradesh under the 15th Finance Commission.

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Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Vikramaditya Singh said here today that it was due to the representations and efforts of the state government that the grant had been sanctioned. He added that the state government had been proactively engaging with the Central Government to secure funding for urban development initiatives.

Vikramaditya said that his ministry had already sent a proposal to the Central Government for the release of funds to Himachal. “The funds will be disbursed in two tranches of 50 per cent at the time of sanctioning and the remaining upon operationalisation of the MSSC model. The state will appoint a third-party organisation of national repute to monitor and evaluate the project,” he added.

He said, “The sanctioned grant is a testimony to these efforts and will be utilised to establish three clusters of urban local bodies in the state and ensure more efficient and technology-driven municipal administration to the people of the state.”

Vikramaditya said that the MSSC model would reduce costs, optimise resource utilisation and enhance service delivery, which would benefit urban area residents in the state. He added that efforts were being made to address critical challenges such as limited manpower, financial constraints and the lack of technical support. The introduction of MSSCs would play a significant role in improving governance and service delivery across municipalities, he claimed.

The minister said that the MSSCs would also help streamline essential services such as the issuance of birth and death certificates, trade licences and grievance redress, similar to the Passport Seva Kendras. Besides, these centres would function as centralised processing hubs for accounting, payroll management and vendor payments. They would also facilitate doorstep services, such as tax collection, waste management and maintenance work, thus improving efficiency in smaller urban local bodies, he added.