Pondicherry: The presidents of the newly constituted village panchayats in Pondicherry have made a joint appeal to the administration to earmark adequate funds under special component plans in the annual and five year plans for the village panchayats to enable them to take up developmental activities.

They said here on Wednesday that although the municipal bodies, commune and village panchayats had been constituted through civic polls, the civic bodies' representatives were yet to be sanctioned the powers to take decisions on various infrastructure development programmes.

G.A. Jagannathan, president of the Karikalambakkam village panchayat in Nettapakkam commune panchayat limits, said that the constitution had very clearly demarcated the areas that fell within the jurisdiction of the Governments and the civic bodies.

But the administration had not come out with any specific legislation highlighting the areas, where the civic bodies had powers.

Financial powers of the civic bodies were also lacking now. The funds sanctioned by the Centre for local bodies, which were unutilised all these years, should be made available, as they now had elected representatives.

The civic bodies should also be sanctioned authority to have administrative powers without interference from the Government.

Conversion of farmlands

Mr. Jagannathan said that the local bodies did not have powers now to prevent conversion of farmlands into residential plots, industrial zones and commercial sites.

The administration should enable them to come out with the steps to put an end to this.

Members of municipal bodies should be included in the Pondicherry Ground Water Authority and the councillors should be sanctioned the authority to recommend applicants for various welfare schemes operated by the Government, he noted.

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