17. Notwithstanding anything in any enactment with respect to the purposes to which the funds or other property of a local authority may be applied, any local authority may-(a) establish or maintain, or establish and maintain, or contribute towards the cost of the establishment or maintenance or the establishment and maintenance of, a leper asylum either within or without the local limits of such local authority;(b) with the previous sanction of the Government and subject to such conditions as that Government may prescribe, appropriate any immoveable property vested in, or under the control of, such body, as a site for, or for use as, a leper asylum.