The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Local bodies will be strengthened, says Panchayat Raj Minister

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 15, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Local bodies will be strengthened, says Panchayat Raj Minister

Staff Reporter

GUNTUR: The Panchayat Raj Minister, J.C. Diwakar Reddy, on Thursday said local bodies would be delegated powers as prescribed in the 73rd and the 74th Amendments of the Constitution.

It would, however, not be before the committee submitted its report on the way it was being implemented in West Bengal, Kerala and Karnataka.

Provisions to be modified

At a press conference here, he said that some of the provisions did not give proper results during implementation, which would be corrected and all powers delegated to local bodies. The Congress was committed to this, he said.

Officials from the Panchayat Raj Department would soon go to Delhi to pursue release of some funds overdue to the State, he said, and added that they would also meet the Prime Minister in this regard.

Merger of some financially unviable panchayats would be merged or reorganised to ensure proper functionality to the system, he observed.

The problems should be resolved at the local level, instead of looking at the State Government for every thing. People's participation was primary in the smooth functioning of local bodies or in the implementation of any Government programme, he said.

Pipelines proposed

A pipeline at a cost of Rs. 550 crores from the Nagarjunsagar project reservoir was being proposed for bringing drinking water to several dry areas in Guntur district through gravity, he said.

Water would be released to Krishna delta from June 15 for irrigation, he said.

Seven-hour power supply would be ensured at any cost, he added.

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