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Himachal Pradesh Public Works Minister Vikramaditya Singh on Wednesday said that, due to the state government's continuous efforts and representations, the central government has sanctioned a grant of Rs.50 crore for the establishment of Municipal Shared Services Centres (MSSCs) for the National Data Centre in the State under the 15th Finance Commission.
He said that the state government, under the guidance of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, has been actively working to strengthen municipal administration by modernising urban local bodies. "We were working to address critical challenges such as limited manpower, financial constraints and lack of technical support, and the introduction of MSSCs would play a significant role in improving governance and service delivery across municipalities," he told reporters. The PWD Minister said that the MSSSC would also help streamline essential services such as issuing birth and death certificates, trade licenses and grievance redressal, similar to the Passport Seva Kendras. Apart from this, these centers 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 works, which would significantly improve efficiency in smaller urban local bodies," he said. He said that the state government has been proactively engaging with the centre to secure funding for urban development initiatives. The sanctioned grant is a testimony to these efforts and would be utilised to establish three clusters of urban local bodies (ULBs) within the state and ensure more efficient and technology-driven municipal administration to the people of the state. Vikramaditya Singh said that the Ministry has already sent the proposal for the release of funds to Himachal. Apart from Himachal, the fund would be released to Assam, Arunachal and Nagaland. He said that the funds would be disbursed in two tranches. 50 per cent of the fund would be disbursed at the time of sanction and the remaining on operationalisation of the MSSC models. He said that to ensure effective implementation, the state would appoint a third-party organisation of national repute to monitor and evaluate the project. He said that the MSSC model would reduce costs, optimise resource utilisation and enhance service delivery, which would benefit urban residents across the state. (ANI)
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