MAKING A POINT: Gulbarga Zilla Panchayat president Yellappa Karikundi presiding over the meeting in Gulbarga on Thursday.

GULBARGA: The Opposition Congress on Thursday forced the Ruling Janata Dal (Secular)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine in the Gulbarga Zilla Panchayat to concede to their demand to upscale the outlay of the annual action plan of the Gulbarga Zilla Panchayat for 2007-08 and increase allocation for development activities under the Special Component Plan (SCP), Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) and for minorities development.

After a stormy two-hour discussion on the action plan for 2007-08 presented at a meeting here on Thursday, president of the zilla panchayat Yellappa Karikundi and Chief Executive Officer P.C. Jaffer promised Congress party members that before submitting the proposals to the State Government, the budget of the annual action plan would be increased. Opposition leader Subash Rathod came down heavily on the zilla panchayat for not increasing the outlay of the plan which has been pegged down at Rs. 235.59 crore, which was less than the current year's plan outlay of Rs. 242.36 crore.

The explanation provided by officials and the ruling party members, including Nagireddy Patil and Gurushant Pattedar was that the plan outlay appeared to be reduced as projects worth Rs. 33.39 crore and payment of salaries under different heads had been transferred to non-plan head . Mr. Rathod said the allocation made to different departments had been lowered .

The meeting witnessed heated exchange of words between Mr. Rathod and Janata Dal (S) member Gurushant Pattedar on the issue.

Later, the annual action plan was approved unanimously on the condition that the zilla panchayat would revise the plan size and increase allocation for development activities.

Rural employment had been given top priority with an allocation of Rs. 64.51 lakh, followed by education with Rs. 53.41 lakhs and watershed with (Rs. 20.78 lakhs) .

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