Bidar: The State Government has reduced grants and responsibilities of the Bidar Zilla Panchayat and the five taluk panchayats in keeping with its policy of strengthening gram panchayats. The Government has also transferred important schemes such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme and drinking water supply and housing schemes to the gram panchayats.

This year's action plan provides evidence of this. The Bidar Zilla Panchayat had sent an action plan for Rs. 122.21 crore to the State Government. The Government sent back an approved plan for only Rs. 43.11 crore, after reducing it by 65 per cent. The rest of the plan is to be divided between taluk panchayats and gram panchayats.

Under the approved proposal, taluk panchayats will get Rs. 35.66 crore, which forms 29.17 per cent of the plan. The 175 gram panchayats will however get the lion's share of the plan. They would take up plans for Rs. 43.44 crore.

Last year's planned outlay stood at Rs. 130.17 crore. All this was to be spent through the zilla panchayat alone. Taluk panchayats and gram panchayats were to receive only token grants. This year, however, the planned amount would be spent through all the three panchayati raj bodies. From the grant, gram panchayats and the zilla panchayat would receive 35 per cent each. The remaining 30 per cent would be spent by taluk panchayats.

In favour

Officials strongly defend the differential allotment. Though all the programmes reach the common man, public money was most efficiently spent when routed through gram panchayats, said a senior officer.

"A gram panchayat member is the only people's representative who resides in his constituency all round the year. Even taluk panchayat and zilla panchayat members reside in taluk headquarters or district headquarters towns. A gram panchayat member is always available to his voters. This makes him more accountable. He can understand people's problems better. People in villages can keep a watch on how their money is being spent, when works are implemented by gram panchayats. Hence the conscious policy to strengthen the gram panchayats. We have seen the results of centralisation. Decentralisation seems to be the only way out," said a senior government official.

Allocation

This year's plan allots over 30 per cent of the grant to primary and higher education. Rural development programmes get the second priority and rural health programmes come next. Drinking water supply gets the least allotment of Rs. 40,000.

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