Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

New role for block panchayats mooted

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An expert committee constituted by the State government has mooted a thorough restructuring of the block panchayats in the State.

The panel’s recommendations are aimed at helping this intermediate tier between the district and grama panchayats to shake off ‘redundancy’ and giving it a redefined role for making creative intervention in the decentralised planning and development processes in the State.

The panel, headed by M.A. Oommen, has as members A. Kasturirangan, Chief Town Planner; J. Chandra, former Mayor; P. Sivanandan of the Centre for Development Studies; P.V. Unnikrishnan, Planning Board member; Michael Tharakan, economist; and Eapen Francis, Additional Director of Panchayats.

The Administrative Reforms Committee has dubbed the block panchayats as a redundant wing of the Panchayati Raj system. It is felt that the block panchayats are often duplicating the functions of the district and grama panchayats, at times working at cross-purposes with the goal of decentralised planning.

The expert committee has advised the government to utilise effectively the 152 block panchayats to augment the planning process and resolve problems that hamper their smooth functioning.

A planning cell has been proposed with the block panchayat president as chairman and a standing committee chairman as vice-chairman. The cell should identify and prioritise Plan projects for the district and grama panchayats. A planning data bank at the block panchayat level has been mooted by collecting and collating all secondary data pertaining to the district and lower levels produced by various agencies, including government departments. The block panchayats will thus become resource centres furnishing subject-wise data for the district planning exercise.

The block panchayats should be assigned to cover a wide gamut of functions, such as preparation of agriculture development plans, conduct of agricultural fairs for propagating new methods of cultivation and setting up of mini industrial units. They will train entrepreneurs for setting up small units, conduct feasibility studies for setting up industrial units, develop non-conventional energy sources and run community health centres, taluk hospitals and palliative care centres, in association with grama panchayats.

They will be mandated to set up Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe cooperative societies and run pre-matric hostels, among others.

Block panchayats should identify and pool the technical manpower resource bank. The technical pool will work with the block panchayats for conducting subject studies and preparing sector-wise plans, such as preparation of regional agriculture development, water resource management policies and environment conservation strategies. Lack of technical expertise has been pointed out as a major shortcoming of decentralised planning.

The blocks should provide technical advice and assistance to the grama panchayats for Plan preparation and identification of individual priority projects, but they should not plan and implement projects oriented for individual beneficiaries. All Centrally sponsored schemes, which are not beneficiary-oriented, should be implemented by the block panchayats.

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