BANGALORE: The State Government is thinking of appointing an ombudsman on the lines of the institution in Kerala for various departments.

Disclosing this here on Thursday, Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj C.M. Udasi said that in Kerala, the ombudsman was looking into financial irregularities committed by government officials. The institution was working well in that State. Before enacting a law in this regard, the Government would seek the advice of Lok Ayukta Santosh Hegde, he said.

A team of five legislators and senior officials would visit Kerala on August 21 to study the functioning of the institution. The team would also study how rural development and housing schemes were being implemented in that State. If the Government could not table a Bill in the legislature to appoint an ombudsman, an Ordinance would be promulgated, the Minister said.

He said the Government would not act on a proposal to extend the tenures of presidents of zilla and taluk panchayats to five years. While presidents of zilla and taluk panchayats had a 30-month term, presidents of gram panchayats had only 20 months. Mr. Udasi said some Janata Dal (Secular) leaders were against the proposal.

Mr. Udasi, who is from the BJP, said there was no consensus in the coalition on giving more powers to MLAs in the affairs of zilla, taluk and gram panchayats. But he added that the Government did not want to curtail the powers of panchayat bodies. He said the Government had written to the Centre urging it to extend the rural employment guarantee scheme to eight more districts in the second phase. The Minister said that an innovative programme, "Nanna Ooru", had been launched to encourage people who had fared well in their careers to take up development works in their native villages. They could take up construction of classrooms, provide computers and furniture, set up laboratories in schools, and offer scholarship to students.

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