BANGALORE: Autonomy and empowerment bereft of monitoring is yet to become a reality for zilla, taluk and gram panchayats, and it has meant these institutions have not been able to deliver administration efficiently, says Savitha Ramesh, former vice-president of the Chikmagalur Zilla Panchayat, has said.

Ms. Ramesh, a delegate at the two-day conference on "Two decades of New Panchayat Raj in Karnataka" articulates the problems of 1,005 members of 27 ZPs in the State as she compares the status of panchayats when the Karnataka Zilla Parishads, Taluk Panchayats , Mandal Panchayats and Nyaya Panchayats Act 1983, was in force, and the present Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act 1993, was enacted after the 73rd Amendment of the Constitution.

MLAs reluctant

Union Minister for Panchayat Raj, Mani Shankar Aiyar, in his inaugural address, referred to the reluctance of MLAs to shed power, and insist on controlling the panchayats.

Few were aware of the good things that the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution in 1993 had brought, he said. The experience of the Chikmagalur ZP sometime ago is a telling evidence of Mr Aiyar's comment.

Control

Ms Ramesh said recently the Chikmagalur MLA had barged into the zilla panchayat meeting with his supporters to stage a dharna.

The reason: although his efforts finally yielded results, and the Government released funds for the district, the panchayat was not releasing money for the projects that he had recommended.

"The Government has done a great thing, but it should create awareness and educate the common people on what it means and how it will affect them.

Otherwise, legislators will continue to mislead people and use the situation to suit their needs," she said.

Grants with a rider

Among the many sources of revenue for the three tiers of the panchayats were the grants from the Centre under the award of the Twelfth Finance Commission, and the grants for State and Central schemes. Since the financial viability of the gram panchayat was crucial to the survival of the panchayati raj system, the State Government had earmarked Rs. 2,130 crore under the Plan expenditure in 2006-07.

Ms. Ramesh said this was nullified by the control systems that had been put in by the Government.

Most of these were tied funds, which meant they had to be spent for specific purposes.

"This means the Government perceives all zilla or gram panchayats to be saddled with similar kind of problems while the fact is that each panchayat has its own unique issues," she said.

Chikmagalur for instance, needed special allocation to take measures against monkey fever, but in another district, that might not be a problem.

Buildings in bad shape

Although nearly all government buildings in the district were rundown, and crumbling, the panchayat was unable to undertake repairs because of constraints on diversion of funds.

"If we have untied funds, we can deal with the problem at hand," she added.

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