ALAPPUZHA: Grama panchayats in the State encountered a large number of problems in developing as local self-governing institutions, said participants at a meeting organised by the Common Centre for Panchayati Raj and Decentralisation of Power, at Thycattusseri, on Wednesday. The panchayats need expert advice from politically enlightened fora of citizens, they said.

Those who took part in the discussion included Kerala Institute of Local Administration director P.P. Balan, economist P.K. Michael Tharakan, Joy Elamon and Jose Chathukulam.

The meeting noted that the public, representatives of people and officials were yet to accept panchayats as local governments. Political parties often failed to nominate eligible persons as candidates in elections to local bodies. Many of the members who had been elected to grama panchayats did not have the educational qualification to understand and implement their duties, it said.

The meeting noted that once elections were over, political parties did not care to provide proper guidance to the members of grama panchayats to discharge their duties.

Though the State Government had transferred control over several institutions to local bodies, the officials were not prepared to accept the suzerainty of the local bodies, the participants said. They noted that the panchayats had lost control over these institutions when the People's Plan was converted into Kerala Development Project.

The meeting said that utilisation of funds by panchayats and their responsibilities were increasing, but the projects being prepared failed to reflect the changing situation.

It was noticed that a coterie consisting of two or three senior members and a small group of officials carried on administration and prepared and implemented projects in panchayats. This often resulted in misuse of funds, as the group was not interested in implementing projects of social relevance. This situation leads to the emergence of a group of permanent beneficiaries who corner the benefits of all projects. The meeting noted that a large number of employees of panchayats did not have any interest in discharging their duties. The meeting noted that responsible citizens could intervene to improve the functioning of grama panchayats.

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