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UDF councillors take out protest march

UP IN ARMS: Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) State secretary and the former Education Minister E.T. Mohammed Basheer inaugurating a UDF march to the Malappuram Collectorate on Saturday.

MALAPPURAM: Local body councillors of the United Democratic Front (UDF) took out a march to the Collectorate here on Saturday in protest against the alleged attempts by the State Government to weaken the civic

bodies.

Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) State secretary and the former Education Minister E.T. Mohammed Basheer inaugurated the march.

The protesters alleged that the Government was trying to sabotage the plans of the civic bodies. The three-tier panchayats and municipalities now faced the biggest challenge ever since the implementation of the Panchayat

Raj system in the State, they said.

The protesters said no project by the civic bodies had been sanctioned even after seven months in the current financial year. The civic bodies were yet to present their projects before the District Planning Council owing to the delay by the Government in issuing the necessary directives, they said. Besides, the guidelines issued by the Government were amended several times, leading to confusion among the local bodies, they said.

It was on May 14 that the Government issued the first guideline for the fiscal, which began one-and-half months before. The Government directive reached the civic bodies months later, with an instruction that a detailed guideline would further be issued. The delay by the Government in issuing the guidelines has had a cascading effect with the local bodies struggling to prepare Plan projects for the current financial year, they said.

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