Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)
Pics by Dayananda Kukkaje
Mangalore, Nov 11: Angered by the alleged pruning down of the grants of the zilla panchayat (ZP) and the powers of its members, the Congress members walked out of the general session of Dakshina Kannada zilla panchayat held here on Tuesday November 10.
“Sizing down of the ZP grants and clipping of the powers of its members have marred the developmental activities in our constituencies. The state government has meddled with the panchayat raj system. Therefore, a resolution condemning the government’s actions should be adopted,” demanded Congress member, Sundar Gowda, as soon as the session was convened. He said that the central government had released Rs 552.62 lac for the year 2007-08 and Rs 792.42 lac for the next year, under the twelfth finance commission grants. But, as the state government implemented the package system in contravention of the existing rules, lot of funds remained unutilized. For the year 2009-10, an action plan of Rs 917.78 lac had been prepared under the said finance commission, but the state government’s action in staying operation of this plan has hampered development, he rued. He also alleged that the funds that were still pending to be released towards the grants meant for the ZP members, had been released by the government to the MLAs by way of special grants.
His demand drew support from Congress members A C Bhandary, Sahul Hamid, Chandrashekhar Kamat, Krishna Amin etc. Rejecting this demand, ZP president, Santosh Kumar Bhandary, suggested that a resolution demanding for the release of the grants may be adopted. He also added that the government has been asked to release a special grant of two crore rupees for the ZP.
The Congress members, who were adamant with their demand, walked out when it became clear that the president was not willing to relent.
The session later decided to contribute a month’s honorarium of the zilla panchayat members towards the flood victims. Vice-president, H Jagannath Salian, standing committee chairpersons Venkat Dambekody, Rajasri Hegde, Sadanand Malli and chief executive officer, P Shiashankar were present.