New Delhi, Oct 19 (IANS): The Finance Ministry on Wednesday released Rs 1,764 crore to four states for providing grants to 'million plus' cities and urban agglomerations under them.
States to which grants were released are Andhra Pradesh (Rs 136 crore), Chhattisgarh (Rs 109 crore), Maharashtra (Rs 799 crore), and Uttar Pradesh (Rs 720 crore).
The grants are meant for million plus cities and urban agglomerations of Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Durg, Bhilainagar, and Raipur in Chhattisgarh, Aurangabad, Greater Mumbai, Nagpur Nashik, Pune, and Vasai-Virar in Maharashtra and Agra, Allahabad, Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
The grants are given as per the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission.
The commission, in its report for the period from 2021-22 to 2025-26, has divided the urban local bodies into two categories - million-plus urban agglomerations and cities (excluding Delhi and Srinagar) and all other cities and towns with less than one million population (non-million plus cities).
It had recommended separate grants for them.