Bengaluru, Oct 02 (IANS): Mahatma Gandhi's dream of decentralisation and reservation for women was prefaced by Rajiv Gandhi, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Monday.

He was speaking at the inauguration of the 2023 Gandhi Gram Puraskar ceremony and Swachh Survekshan Rural State-level award distribution programme organised by the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department held at the Banquet Hall, Vidhana Soudha on Monday.

“Decentralisation was Gandhi's dream. This is the only way democracy can succeed. He believed that the development of the country and the state would be possible. Thus he advocated ‘gram swaraj’, said Siddaramaiah.

He explained that it was “Mahatma Gandhi's policy that the country cannot develop without the development of villages. Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as per the aspirations of Mahatma Gandhi, wrote a preface for decentralisation.”

Siddaramaiah said that it was late Rajiv Gandhi who amended the Constitution for democratic decentralisation and former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao implemented it.

“Rajiv Gandhi and Congress were responsible for implementing 50 per cent reservation in local bodies and panchayats. It is the Congress that has written the rationale for political reservation for women, which is now claimed to have been implemented by the Central government,” he said.

“It is now our insistence that reservation should be made for backward class women as well,” he said.

He added that the government has seriously thought about setting up village courts with the ambition that the disputes of the villages should be settled in the villages.

According to Mahatma Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi's vision of village swaraj and decentralisation of power, establishment of village courts will be of great benefit to the villagers.

Khadi-village industries will be developed, he said and assured that steps would be taken to expand the market for Khadi Gramodyog products.