The Hindu : Karnataka News : Area development boards lying dormant, losing relevance, says report

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 16, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Karnataka

Karnataka

Area development boards lying dormant, losing relevance, says report

Firoz Rozindar

The Government has been ignoring the boards
Very few members attend the quarterly meetings

Chitradurga: The recommendation sent recently by the Centre for Multidisciplinary Development Research (CDMR), an evaluating agency, to the State Planning Department has raised questions over the significance and feasibility of three development boards.

The CDMR in its recent report has recommended the Government either wind up or strengthen the boards.

Over a decade ago, the Government had constituted three boards; Hyderabad-Karnataka Development Board (HKDB), Malnad Area Development Board (MDB)and Bayaluseeme Development Board (BDB). With the boards, the Government wanted an overall development of State.

The HKDB was constituted in 1990, MADB in 1991 and BDB in 1995.

But for various reasons, these boards failed to meet their purpose. The chief reasons cited were shortage of funds, reluctant attitude of board members and improper utilisation of available funds.

Lack of quorum

The members, mostly MPs, MLAs and other elected representatives, were supposed to attend quarterly meeting to draft plans on various development projects. “But since they never attend quarterly meeting, we get the proposal approved during budget session in Bangalore by holding a meeting, which is attended hardly by some 30 members”, said an official of one of the boards. He said the HKDB had 73 members, MADB 125 members while BDB had 147 members. Despite this big numbers, the officials found it difficult to have quorum for the meetings. Considering these aspects, a high-power committee headed by economist D.M. Nanjundappa in his report submitted in 2000, had recommended the abolition of these boards.

S.M. Krishna, in his tenure as Chief Minister, had decided to abolish all the boards, but dropped the decision because of pressure from leaders of Hyderabad Karnataka. In the recent report, even the CDMR supported Nanjundappa Committee’s recommendations.

Hyderabad-Karnataka Horata Samiti president Vaijnath Patil said funds were not given to the board, however he opposed abolition of the boards. “The Government, instead of closing it, must strengthen them to reach its objectives,” he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka