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Excess staff in Kerala to be redeployed: Minister

Staff Reporter

Staff shortage has hit functioning of local bodies

PATHANAMTHITTA: Kerala Minister for Local Self-Government Paloli Mohammed Kutty said here on Thursday that excess staff in various departments would be redeployed to solve shortage of staff at various panchayat offices in the State.

Addressing a meeting of panchayat authorities in the district here, the Minister said shortage of staff had affected the smooth functioning of various local self-governments in the State. He said failure by local bodies to utilise effectively the development fund allotted to it in a time-bound manner would only dent the image of decentralisation of power. He said the local self-governments should take necessary steps to utilise the development fund.

Mr. Mohammed Kutty said the Government was in favour of giving more powers to local self-governments as part of the decentralisation process.

He pointed out that the fund utilised by panchayats for the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in their jurisdiction was far below that spent by Government departments under the Special Component Plan and the Tribal Sub Plan. He said panchayats should lay stress on time-bound utilisation of their Plan fund allocation.

The Minister called upon the panchayat authorities to give priority to agriculture and other developing areas while chalking out the annual Plan. He said the Government had prepared the EMS Housing Scheme to construct five lakh houses for the homeless poor within the next five years. One lakh houses would be built every year, beginning from April.

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