By Staff Reporter
The Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance today released an amount of Rs. 1,764 crore to 4 States for providing grants to Million Plus Cities/Urban Agglomerations. The States to which grants were released today are Andhra Pradesh (Rs. 136 crore), Chhattisgarh (Rs. 109 crore), Maharashtra (Rs. 799 crore) and Uttar Pradesh (Rs. 720 crore).
The grants released are meant for Million Plus Cities/ Urban Agglomerations (MPC/UAs) of Vijayawada & Visakhapatnam in the State of Andhra Pradesh, Durg Bhilainagar & Raipur in the State of Chhattisgarh, Aurangabad, Greater Mumbai, Nagpur Nashik, Pune & Vasai-Virar City in the State of Maharashtra and Agra, Allahabad, Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut & Varanasi in the State of Uttar Pradesh.
The 15th Finance Commission (15th F.C.) in its report for the period from 2021-22 to 2025-26 has divided the Urban Local Bodies into two categories: (a) Million-Plus urban agglomerations/cities (excluding Delhi and Srinagar), and (b) all other cities and towns with less than one million population (Non-Million Plus cities). The 15th F.C. has recommended separate grants for them. Out of the total grants recommended by the Commission for Million Plus Cities/ Urban Agglomerations (MPC/UAs), more than 2/3rd is recommended for Solid Waste Management component and the remaining 1/3rd  is allocated for Ambient Air quality.
The 15th F.C. recommended Solid Waste Management grant component of Million Plus Cities Challenge Fund for Million-Plus cities/UAs is intended to be utilized for improving drinking water quality & supply (including rainwater harvesting and recycling), sanitation and achieving star ratings by the urban local bodies in Solid Waste Management in consonance with the approved City Action Plan (CAP) and commitments made in the tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed for the purpose.
State wise amount of urban local bodies (ULB) grant released to the states in the financial year 2022-23 is given below:
| S. No. | State | Amount of ULB grant released in FY 2022-23 (Rs in crore) | |
| 1 | Andhra Pradesh | 293.75 | |
| 2 | Arunachal Pradesh | 0.00 | |
| 3 | Assam | 0.00 | |
| 4 | Bihar | 7.35 | |
| 5 | Chhattisgarh | 307.20 | |
| 6 | Goa | 0.00 | |
| 7 | Gujarat | 20.21 | |
| 8 | Haryana | 77.40 | |
| 9 | Himachal Pradesh | 78.00 | |
| 10 | Jharkhand | 11.94 | |
| 11 | Karnataka | 7.35 | |
| 12 | Kerala | 256.00 | |
| 13 | Madhya Pradesh | 314.10 | |
| 14 | Maharashtra | 840.34 | |
| 15 | Manipur | 42.50 | |
| 16 | Meghalaya | 44.00 | |
| 17 | Mizoram | 17.00 | |
| 18 | Nagaland | 0.00 | |
| 19 | Orissa | 0.00 | |
| 20 | Punjab | 0.00 | |
| 21 | Rajasthan | 11.94 | |
| 22 | Sikkim | 7.50 | |
| 23 | Tamil Nadu | 14.70 | |
| 24 | Telangana | 331.40 | |
| 25 | Tripura | 21.00 | |
| 26 | Uttar Pradesh | 1988.07 | |
| 27 | Uttarakhand | 62.70 | |
| 28 | West Bengal | 7.35 | |
| Total | 4761.80 |