MANGALORE: The Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat will take up major maintenance work of its various assets, including roads, bridges and buildings in 2006-07 with the help of Rs. 8.60 crore grants made available to it by the 12th Finance Commission. The grants represented highest ever quantum of funds to be received by the panchayat for these specific purposes.

The commission had earmarked Rs. 7.39 crore for maintenance of roads and bridges, Rs. 33.53 lakh for development grants and Rs. 86.90 lakh for maintenance of various buildings. The panchayat expects more funding under these heads for four years and intends to utilise it fully to take up long overdue maintenance work.

The panchayat at its recent general meeting approved action plan for maintenance of roads and bridges. In all, 269 maintenance works would be taken up in five taluks. Belthangady would get Rs. 2.17 crore for 38 works, Mangalore Rs. 1.55 crore (53), Puttur Rs. 1.52 crore (40), Sullia Rs. 1.11 crore (63) and Bantwal Rs. 1.02 crore (75).

The actual maintenance work would start only in October once monsoon subsided. Only asphalted and metalled roads would receive priority under these 269 works. With the panchayat set to receive Rs. 1.51 crore under the Mukhya Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, most rural roads under the purview of panchayat would receive the attention after a long time.

Panchayat president Mamatha D.S. Gatti told presspersons here on Tuesday that the panchayat had not received any grants for maintenance under the 11th Finance Commission.

She said the officials had indicated that the panchayat was expected to receive similar grants for four years. It would vastly aid the panchayat to take up maintenance works.

The panchayat had decided to build a meeting hall out of Rs. 33.53 lakh allocated to it for development. Ms. Gatti said steps would be taken for its construction. The present hall had a limited capacity and was not equipped to conduct meetings, she said.

The Rs. 86.90 lakh grants would be utilised to take up maintenance of school classrooms, anganwadi buildings, health department buildings and other buildings under its purview. Under this, each of the five taluk panchayats would receive Rs. 11.59 lakh for maintenance. These works would be identified and executed by the respective taluk panchayats.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail