Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Government accused of weakening panchayats

Special Correspondent

Decision to post KAS officers as CEOs of zilla pancayats draws flak

GULBARGA: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) and the Karnataka State Gram Panchayat Employees' Association on Sunday accused the State Government of systematically making the panchayati raj institutions subservient to legislators and the Revenue Department.

CPI(M) State Secretariat Member and association president Maruti Manpade said after the Janata Dal (Secular)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition assumed power, the panchayati raj institutions had been weakened. Mr. Manpade criticised the Government's decision to post Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) officers as chief executive officers of the zilla panchayats instead of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers. With the transfer of more financial and executive powers in implementing various development programmes to the panchayati raj institutions, the Government should post IAS officers to head the zilla panchayats. Now, the chief executive officers of the zilla panchayat were "playing second fiddle" to IAS officials and were accommodating the interests of legislators.

Mr. Manpade said even in the five districts where the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was being implemented, the Government had not posted IAS officers to the post of chief executive officers of the zilla panchayat. He said the post of the executive officer in the taluk panchayats where the scheme was being implemented had remained vacant for several months.

Mr. Manpade said a delegation of the association had met Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister C.M. Udasi thrice in Bangalore and pleaded with him for strengthening the panchayati raj institutions.

He said the association had decided to picket the official residence of Mr. Udasi in Bangalore on June 29 to protest against the indifferent attitude of the Government towards the panchayati raj institutions.

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