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Commune panchayat councillors create ruckus at training programme

PUDUCHERRY: Noisy scenes were witnessed at a training programme held by the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) on Monday to sensitise the councillors of five commune panchayats to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 to be implemented in the Union Territory from April 1.

Just as the DRDA Project Director P.Mathew Samuel completed his presentation on the scheme, a section of the councillors were on their feet demanding devolution of powers to the commune panchayat functionaries. They dubbed the NRGEA as yet another project which was going to be executed without giving them necessary powers.

Though some of the councillors wanted to be present at venue till the completion of the programme, others persuaded them to join them in the “walkout.”

According to official sources, as per the Central Government’s guidelines, the DRDA had taken steps to sensitise legislators and the Panchayat Raj functionaries at different levels.

In the first phase, a programme was held on January 4 to highlight the salient features of the NRGEA for MLAs. The second programme was held on January 7 in Puducherry and on January 9 at Karaikal to sensitise the village panchayat presidents, they said. Training was imparted to the ward members of the village panchayats on January 19 and 20, they added.

All the details of the scheme had been explained to the Panchayat Raj functionaries through the training programmes, the sources said. Handbooks and explanatory notes were also handed over to them for reference, they added.

The Panchayat Raj functionaries had been informed that the NRGEA was aimed at providing a safety net for the poor who did not get any other employment even while trying to create durable and sustainable social assets in the villages. In the second phase, the DRDA would launch publicity with regard to the implementation of the NRGEA, the sources said, adding that the Grama Sabha meeting slated for January 26 would provide the forum to formally inform the villagers about the scheme and take suggestions from them with regard to the projects required for their villages.

The DRDA had the simple mandate of sensitising the Panchayat Raj functionaries about the NRGEA, which mainly centred around the village panchayats and the Grama Sabha., the sources said.

The programme was not the proper occasion for the commune panchayt councillors to raise larger issues relating to devolution of powers, they said, adding that the commune panchayats had residual powers.

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