The district has been placed in the lowest rank in spending the plan fund allotted for the grama panchayats in the State during the last financial year.
It is attributed to the lower fund utilisation of grama panchayats in the plantation areas. Scarcity of inhabitants and limited infrastructure resulted in the poor fund utilisation. The funds on agriculture, tourism and construction of infrastructure facilities like roads and drinking water projects remained unutilised leading to the low spending by grama panchayats.
In the plantation areas, basic infrastructure facilities provided by the estate managements and lack of land available to the grama panchayats curtailed their activities. The first three grama panchayats that have spent the lowest amount are in the district. Edamalakkudy, in the Munnar Forest Division, remains the one which utilised the lowest amount.
Though, the district is placed in the 14th rank in fund utilisation by the grama panchayats, it is in the ninth rank in terms of fund utilisation by the three-tier local bodies.
Though the average total fund utilisation is 83%, some of the panchayats are far behind the average level.
Munnar and Senapathy grama panchayats followed Edamalakkudy in terms of lowest fund utilisation. While Edamalakkudy spent 44.97%, Munnar and Senapathy spent 59.8% 59.74% respectively. Though Munnar had a fund of ₹8 crore, only half of the allotted amount could be utilised. Though Vandiperiyar was allotted ₹11 crore, 35% of it remained unutilised.