Karnataka   

Villagers here are ignorant of Gram Swaraj

Tardy progress: Head of the World Bank team Geetha Sethi and Principal Secretary (Rural Development and Panchayati Raj) K. Jairaj at a recent meeting at Gulur on the implementation of the Gram Swaraj scheme.

BAGEPALLI (CHIcKBALLAPUR district): Thousands of villagers in Bagepalli taluk in Chickballapur district are a disappointed lot. Almost all villages in this taluk, which was earlier part of Kolar district, lack even minimum basic amenities. People do not get potable water, power supply and there are no all-weather roads.

Under implementation for the past one year, the World Bank-assisted Gram Swaraj programme, according to villagers, has not made any difference to their lives.

The Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department (RDPR) is the nodal agency to implement the Rs. 600 crore five-year project. As many as 1,343 gram panchayats (GPs) in 39 most backward taluks identified by the Committee for Redressal of Regional Imbalances, headed by the late D.M. Nanjundappa, are the beneficiaries of the project.

Gram Swaraj promises to provide potable water, good roads, and other civic amenities in these most backward villages. The objective of the project is to improve the effectiveness of service delivery by the panchayats, particularly with respect to management of public resources and the delivery of relevant services that the rural people prioritise. Despite being under implementation for a year, only a few villagers panchayat members in Bagepalli taluk are aware of the project. This came to light when the World Bank team led by Geetha Sethi and RDPR officials visited some of the villages in the taluk on Friday.

The project had not made any impact so far in Telugu-speaking villages of Gulur and Thimmampalli panchayats. Both panchayats were starved of funds as they could not take up development works as a large amount of the allocated funds got deducted for electricity and water bills.

Dr. Sethi admitted that neither the villagers nor the panchayat members were aware of Gram Swaraj.

K. Jairaj, Principal Secretary, RDPR, told The Hindu that many schemes were not being implemented due to “the ineffective execution machinery at the panchayat level.” Officials of the World Bank and RDPR held meetings with panchayat members and officials in front of the public at Gulur and Thimmampalli and heard the problems in the execution of the programme.

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