BANGALORE: The Opposition Congress members staged a walkout during the monthly meeting of the Bangalore Rural Zilla Panchayat here on Friday protesting against what they termed the "administrative and political lapses" that kept them away from the performance review meeting chaired by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.

Congress members Chaluvaraju, Lakshminarayana, Dayanandaswamy and others demanded an explanation from zilla panchayat president Shantamma (Janata Dal-S) and chief executive officer Sathyamurthy for the lapses. They charged that the ruling JD(S) had not invited the Opposition members to the review meeting deliberately to score a political point. It was done at the cost of development works and public interest. In response, Mr. Sathyamurthy said he took charge only on the day of the meeting. But Ms. Shantamma was criticised by both the Opposition and her own party members for fumbling with her reply. The members made an issue of her "inability to communicate properly."

Mr. Lakshminarayana and others alleged that development works had been hampered owing to interference by officials. Referring to action plans conceived independently by the taluk and gram panchayats that come under the zilla panchayat, members demanded that the Government take measures to ensure that gram and taluk panchayats are answerable to zilla panchayats to some extent.

They pressed Mr. Sathyamurthy to issue an order to that effect, but he did not comply.

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