Mangaluru: Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) state president Abdul Majeed Mysuru urged the central govt to release the pending grants under the 15th Finance Commission of Rs 2,133 crore for 2025-26 to the local bodies in Karnataka immediately.Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, he said that while the Centre has been biased towards Karnataka by not releasing funds, the state govt failed to access it.“This crisis has directly affected nearly 6,000 gram panchayats in the state. Most of the works planned in villages could not be initiated due to a lack of funds. The central govt has been citing the violation of guidelines as the reason for not releasing the funds. As per the guidelines, the funds under the 15th Finance Commission grants are released only if there are elected bodies in the taluk panchayat, zilla panchayat and GPs. The successive govts in Karnataka failed to hold elections to the local bodies,” he said and demanded that the state govt should immediately hold elections to TPs and ZPs.He also questioned 28 MPs from Karnataka for not raising the issue during the Parliament sessions. “Dakshina Kannada MP Capt Brijesh Chowta was wasting time speaking about SDPI in the Parliament instead of raising this serious issue of fund scarcity. All the 28 MPs from Karnataka need to apologise to the people of Karnataka for not raising their voice against the non-release of funds,” he added.
