The Hindu
Pic: Dayanand Kukkaje

Mangalore, Jan 22: Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat, at its fifth special general meeting here on Monday, approved an action plan for road development work for 2007-08.

The work will be taken up at a cost of Rs 8.78 crore. Of this, grants from 12th Finance Commission will be Rs 5.52 crore and Chief Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojana (CMGSY) Rs 2.1 crore.

Modified guidelines

The State Government modified the guidelines on implementation of road development work following representations by presidents of zilla panchayats to the Governor. As per the modified guidelines, the package has been reduced from Rs. 60 lac to Rs 1 crore to Rs 8 lac to Rs. 15 lac. The new guidelines, issued on December 28, 2007, are applicable to all the districts barring Mysore, Mandya and Uttara Kannada.

As per the modified guidelines, zilla panchayats will be required to fulfil the conditions laid down and utilise the grants made available under 12th Finance Commission exclusively for maintenance and renovation of rural roads under the action plan. The panchayat will have the right to utilise two-thirds of the grants released under CMGSY for the same purpose. They are free to use the rest of the funds for road development work in the district depending on local needs and outside the purview of action plan.

Sundar Gowda, zilla panchayat member, welcomed the revised norms but opposed the Government’s decision to execute the work on package system. This would only help contractors and render the members unable to get the roads repaired in their constituencies, he said.

Abdul Aziz Malar, a member, said although his constituency had some very bad roads, a mere Rs. 8 lac had been set aside for their repair.

When Chandrashekar Kamath, member, sought to know the rationale behind the Government insisting on a package system, chief executive officer (CEO) A.M. Kunjappa said it was for the authorities to answer. However, he suggested the members that they were free to approach the engineering department to repair the roads included under District Rural Road Plan, if such roads were not included, inadvertently, in the action plan.

When the members demanded a reply from the panchayat president K P Sucharitha Shetty, he requested them to approve the action plan given that the repairs had to be taken up urgently.

Shetty said the House, in future, would oppose guidelines which were difficult to implement at the grass roots-level. The House approved the action plan.

The members subsequently approved an action plan for Rs 35.78 lac enabling the panchayat to take up renovation and creation of assets. The action plan includes repair of school buildings. The action plan for zilla panchayat includes a grant of Rs. 1.5 lac for setting up a rain water harvesting system.

An action plan for Rs 15.75 lac for development and maintenance of tanks in the taluks too was approved. Of this action plan, Rs 4.80 lac has been earmarked for Mangalore taluk, Bantwal tail gets Rs 4.55 lac, Puttur taluk Rs 2.4 lac, Sullia taluk Rs 1.6 lac and Belthangady taluk Rs 2.4 lac.