The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Place Stalin panel report before Assembly: CPI(M)

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Wednesday, Apr 16, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Place Stalin panel report before Assembly: CPI(M)

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The M.K. Stalin Committee report on the devolution of powers and functions to local bodies must be placed before the Assembly, Communist Party of India (Marxist) member C. Govindasamy demanded on Tuesday.

Participating in the debate in the Assembly on Tuesday on the demands for grants to the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj department and Municipal Administration and Water Supply department, Mr. Govindasamy called for greater allocation of funds to rural local bodies and said that the share of allotment of funds to the local bodies should be 30 per cent apart from the government bearing their expenditure on health and education.

S. Gunasekaran (Communist Party of India) advocated increase in the frequency of meetings of gram sabhas and said the meetings of the gram sabhas should be held according to the convenience of people in the respective villages. The unit cost of houses built under the Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) should be increased from Rs.55,000 to Rs. 1 lakh. P. Senthamizhselvan (Pattali Makkal Katchi) reiterated his party’s idea of preparing the Panchayat List on the lines of the State List or Union List or Concurrent List in the Constitution. C. Gnanasekaran and N.R. Rangarajan (Congress) wanted a hike in the allocation per constituency under the Member of Legislative Assembly Constituency Development Scheme.

Earlier, initiating the debate, Local Administration and Rural Development Minister M.K. Stalin said conversion of multi-member wards into single member wards in all village panchayats as in the case of Panchayat Unions and District Panchayats was among the important recommendations of the committee. The Gram Sabhas should act as a forum of social audit for all the schemes implemented by various departments. The committee had called for greater operational independence to panchayat raj institutions by enhancing administrative sanction powers of village panchayats, panchayat unions and district panchayats for works taken out of their general funds.

NREGS

On the progress of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the Minister said that as a result of the concerted efforts taken by the government, a sum of Rs. 619 crore had been utilised and over 800 lakh mandays of employment were generated as on March 31.

About 82 per cent of the work force comprised women and 56 per cent were Scheduled Castes.

Waste disposal

Stating that the disposal of solid waste and sewage water was becoming a major problem for many village panchayats, especially those situated in the vicinity of municipal corporations and bigger municipalities, he said it might not be a viable proposition for the village panchayats to contract out solid waste management and sewage disposal. It was proposed to group several such panchayats into clusters to form a viable unit for contracting out or allow the panchayats to enter into partnership with the neighbouring municipal corporations or municipalities.

Under Bharat Nirman, 6,669 km roads were proposed for upgradation before the end of 2008-2009 to ensure full farm-to-market connectivity.

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