‘Himachal gets Rs 50 crore to set up MSSCs’

Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Public Works Minister Vikramaditya Singh announced on Wednesday that the Central government has approved a grant of Rs 50 crore for establishing Municipal Shared Services Centres (MSSCs) for the National Data Centre in the state, as part of the initiatives under the 15th Finance Commission

This, however, he said was a result of the state government’s continuous efforts and representations The minister, who has been frequently following up the state government’s proposal for funding with the Centre, said: “We are working to address critical challenges such as limited manpower, financial constraints and lack of technical support, and the introduction of MSSCs will play a significant role in improving governance and service delivery across municipalities”.

“These will also facilitate doorstep services, such as tax collection, waste management and maintenance works, which are going to significantly improve efficiency in smaller urban local bodies,” he said.

Singh said that the state government has been proactively engaging with the Centre to secure funding for urban development initiatives.

The MSSSCs are expected to help in streamlining essential services such as issuing birth and death certificates, trade licenses and grievance redressal, similar to the Passport Seva Kendras. Apart from this, these centres will function as centralised processing hubs for accounting, payroll management and vendor payments.

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, he said.

Singh claimed 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.

Singh said that the funds would be disbursed in two tranches. 50 percent of the fund would be disbursed at the time of sanction and the remaining on operationalisation of the MSSC models.

The state would soon appoint a third-party organisation of national repute to monitor and evaluate the project, he said. The MSSC model would reduce costs, optimise resource utilisation and enhance service delivery, which would benefit urban residents across the state, he added.