The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Don’t mess with our affairs, MLAs told

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Friday, Jul 06, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Don’t mess with our affairs, MLAs told

Alladi Jayasri

GP members are participating in a convention
They launched an agitation on May 16

BANGALORE: We do not want MLAs messing around in our affairs, or tamper with the 73rd Amendment, which has given us power to make decisions that affect us, says Susheelamma, Gonibeedu Gram Panchayat member and former president from Tarikere, Chikmagalur district.

One of the 1,500-plus gram panchayat members who converged on the city on Thursday to participate in the Panchayati Raj Hakkottaya Andolana’s convention against the Karnataka Panchayati Raj (Amendment Bill) 2007, she said: “We will not allow the Bill to become law.”

The Hakkottaya Andolana was launched on May 16 by a federation of elected members of panchayats, institutions and individuals to protest the Amendment, which, “violates the authority and mandate of the panchayats to identify beneficiaries of various Government schemes, and hands it over to any committee or authority of the Government.”

But Ms. Susheelamma fears that as on previous occasions, the decisions of the gram sabhas will simply be overruled by those of the local MLA and his supporters, and a totally different list of beneficiaries will be released. “That means the real beneficiaries, the needy, the women and the poor, will have to go without a house.”

But Ms. Susheelama’s worry, ahead of the gram sabha meeting scheduled for Friday, is the fate of the drinking water supply schemes. Recently, Rs. 4 lakh was sanctioned to the gram panchayat for a water supply scheme. A few days ago, when the panchayat was all but ready to call for tenders and allot the work, the zilla panchayat had asked for the cheque to be returned, as the gram panchayat had no powers to get the work done.

K. Rudramma, member of Kudlur Gram Panchayat in Tarikere taluk of Chikmagalur, said of the 100 houses recently allotted in her panchayat under Ashraya, not a single beneficiary selected at the gram sabha was on the list finally released. The absence of beneficiaries at the gram sabha was touted as a reason for knocking some names off the list. The gram panchayat received Rs. 1 lakh for tank development, but the zilla panchayat Chief Executive Officer cancelled the allotment and “re-allotted” it to neighbouring Koratigere panchayat. Ms. Rudramma reckons that the “invisible hand” of the MLA and his supporters and the rivalry between the Congress and Janata Dal(Secular) supporters was at play here.

‘Focus on issues’

G. Basavaraju, president of Naganahalli gram panchayat in H.D.Kote taluk, thinks the MLAs should be investing time and thought to policy issues. For instance, no MLA had ever talked about the fact that the D.M. Nanjundappa Committee Report on Regional Imbalances had recommended that 42 departments should be transferred to the panchayats . Only 29 had been transferred so far. The gram panchayat president should be elected for a term of five years, instead of 30 months, so that decentralised governance could be truly effective. The Legislature should be deliberating on these matters, and not worry over the beneficiaries of a particular scheme, he said.

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