The Hindu : Karnataka News : ZP members demand exclusive fund

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Wednesday, Jul 04, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

ZP members demand exclusive fund

Staff Correspondent

Third Finance Commission urged to allocate Rs. 5 lakh a year for every member

Members resent interference from the Government, MLAs in ZP affairs
Funds for some works released at the fag end of financial year, say members

DAVANGERE: Davangere Zilla Panchayat members cutting across party lines demanded the Third State Finance Commission to recommend to the Government to set up local area development fund of Rs. 5 lakh to each member so that members could take up certain development works in their jurisdiction.

At a meeting organised to elicit the views of the elected representatives of local bodies and officials to strengthen the local bodies such as zilla panchayat, taluk panchayats and gram panchayats and other local bodies here on Tuesday, the members demanded setting up of a separate fund on the lines of MP’s and MLA’s Local Area Development Scheme.

Hodigere Ramesh, Govindaswamy, Siddalingappa, P. Ramegowda and Y. Ramappa were vociferous in their demand to set up a fund for zilla panchayat members. They said that each zilla panchayat member represented over 40,000 people and hundreds of villages. They needed certain amount every year to address the problems of their voters.

Commission chairman A.G. Koodgi assured the members of examining the issue and recommend to the Government after an analysis. Constant interference from the Government and from the other elected representatives such as MLAs in the administrative matters of the zilla panchayat prominently figured at the meeting. Zilla panchayat members took objection to stipulating guidelines for each and every work from the Government.

P. Ramegowda said the zilla panchayat prepared the budget and action plan and the Government, after a scrutiny, approved it and sanctioned funds. After releasing the funds, why should the Government interfere and send repeated circulars as how to carry out the works?, he asked. He said on many occasions, the Government had issued orders to stop many works half the way for reasons not known. The zilla panchayat had no freedom to make use of its own funds and serve the people, he said.

Many works stopped

Mr. Govindaswamy, showing copies of the government orders, said many development works of the zilla panchayat had been stopped by the Government. He alleged that the Government had formulated action plan of many works of the zilla panchayat on many occasions and he sought to know whether the IAS officers sitting in Vidhana Soudha knew the problems and needs of the villages in Davangere district.

Hodigere Ramesh urged the Commission to suggest to the Government to stop sending funds at the fag end of the financial year. Funds were released on March 30 or two days earlier with a note that they should be utilised immediately.

T. Thimme Gowda, member of the Commission and former IAS officer, said the Commission had received similar complaints in other districts. Release of funds was delayed in exceptional cases. In such cases, three months could be provided for utilising the funds, he said.

Staff shortage

Venkatesh, zilla panchayat member, complained that one engineer had been assigned more than eight gram panchayats and he asked whether it was humanely possible to supervise works of eight gram panchayat by an engineer. He pointed out that there were only six engineers for over 40 gram panchayats in Davangere taluk.

Parashivamurthy, Deputy Director of Horticulture, said that Davangere district was one of the 10 districts that were not included in the National Horticulture Mission. Apart from this, regular grants of Rs. 2 crore to develop horticulture had not been sanctioned for the past two years and he appealed to the commission to impress upon the Government to restore grants.

Davangere Zilla Panchayat president H.B. Manjanna alleged that MLAs at some places had been interfering in the zilla panchayat affairs and Honnali MLA had changed the list of beneficiaries selected by the gram panchayat for Ashraya houses.

He asked the Commission to recommend to the Government to issue an order restricting the MLAs from interfering in the affairs of the zilla panchayat.

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