The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Shobha: no plan to disturb rotation system for GPs

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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Shobha: no plan to disturb rotation system for GPs

Special Correspondent

Bangalore: Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Shobha Karandlaje on Friday told the Legislative Council that the Government was not planning to disturb the rotation system for gram panchayats, at least for two terms or ten years, so that members did not lose interest in the development of their areas during their tenure.

Replying to a debate under Rule 330 on economic empowerment of village panchayats, she said that gram sabhas were holding meetings twice a year which was not enough to discuss development issues in their respective areas. She said the Government was also thinking whether providing solar power to panchayats would save money on electricity bills, which was cornering a major part of the funds.

With a view to expanding the scope of the village development concept, she said a larger body, comprising people such as the head master, heads of NGOs, would be set up, which would discuss and decide would be more beneficial to all villagers.

K.C. Kondaiah, V.R. Sudarshan, Pratap Chandra Shetty and V.S. Ugrappa (all Congress) and acting Chairman N. Thippanna also suggested various steps.

The Minister said that though Karnataka was rated number one in implementing the panchayat raj concept, 14,479 out of 59,630 rural habitations in the State did not have clean drinking water.

In the last 60 years, she said only 39,000 km of the total 1.5 lakh rural roads had been asphalted, which was not a sign of development.

In the entire country, 49 per cent of the villages had toilets, but it was 28 per cent in the State. Mr. Thippanna said toilets had been built in many villages, but they had become useless as water was not supplied for cleaning them.

Ms. Karandlaje said each gram panchayat was given Rs. 40 lakh, every year, but still there was no discernible development.

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