Kerala - Thrissur   

Confusion over UDF decision on local bodies

By T. Ramavarman

THRISSUR, NOV. 25. The reported clearance given by the UDF steering committee to restore the 18 panchayats that have been merged with municipalities and corporations before the last local bodies elections has caused much confusion among the political and administrative circles here.

According to experts and political leaders, if pursued further, it will be another `Thuglak model of reform' as the merger of these panchayats with higher level local bodies has advanced considerably with many activities like creations of new assets and liabilities. They point out that one of the worst hit local bodies with this move will be the Thrissur Corporation which was constituted before the last elections by adding several panchayats from the surrounding areas to the erstwhile Thrissur Municipality. In Thrissur, the panchayats that were added to the municipality were Ayyanthole, Koorkkenchery, Vilvattam, Ollukkara, Nadathara and Ollur. The Corporation may have to be reverted to the earlier status of municipality if the panchayats added to them are delinked. ``Personally I am against the delinking of the panchayats from the corporations. All the five corporations in the State are engaged in the implementation of major development schemes by taking loan to the tune of Rs.1,000 crores from international funding institutions. I don't think the Government will delink some of the panchayats from the corporations at this juncture,'' the Thrissur Mayor, K. Radhakrishnan told The Hindu here.

No rationale

Top officials in the Local Administration Department and the Planning Board also expressed inability to explain the rationale behind the UDF move. ``Earlier, there were allegations that the decision to add some of the panchayats to different municipalities was taken arbitrarily for political reasons. There may be a case for delinking those panchayats [in Thiruvananthapuram]. But in Thrissur, the newly added panchayats are required to treat it as a corporation. So, the issues must be treated separately,'' said an official.

An argument cited in favour of the delinking is the observation reportedly made by the State Election Commission on the constitution of a new corporation. The Commission had reportedly observed that any panchayat should be declared as a town area before its transition into a corporation. But in Thrissur (and in Kollam) the panchayats that became corporation area had not been declared as town areas before that.

However, the officials argue that the Constitution insists only the framing of a norm and strict adherence to it while declaring any area as panchayat, municipality and corporation. According to them, there is no need for going through the stages of converting a panchayat into a town, then to a municipality and subsequently to the large urban area of corporation.

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Confusion over UDF decision on local bodies

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