Report and Pics From Hemanath Padubidri
Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (RD/CN)

Udupi, Jun 27: State home minister Dr V S Acharya, inaugurated the newly-built partial building of zilla panchayat located opposite the existing deputy commissioner’s (DC) office on Thursday, June 26.
 
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Acharya said that the construction of the district headquarters in Manipal by Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) is on at a cost of Rs 22 crore and will be completed by 2009. The KHB is also developing the access roads from all taluks across the district.

He reiterated that the state government was committed to empowering the local governance with administrative powers that will help the villages achieve significant progress.  Dr Acharya said that the BJP-led government aimed to make optimum use of funds to achieve positive results in its five-year term.
 

Union minister of state for labour, Oscar Fernandes, was the chief guest. In his address, he said that of the 30 lac gram panchayat members in the country, women account for 10 lac which indicates significant participation of women in local governance.  Moreover, national growth would be assured if they get their due share of administrative powers.

Fernandes stressed that if people are involved in local administration, under panchayat raj, there would be all round progress. He called on the zilla panchayat administration to concentrate on reducing casualties from Chikungunya that has been rapidly spreading across the undivided Dakshina Kannada district.  He also assured financial assistance from the union government in combating the disease.
 
Kaup MLA Lalaji R Mendon, Karkala MLA Gopal Bhandary, Byndoor MLA Laxminarayan, MLC Pratapchandra Shetty, Moodbidri MLA Abhayachandra Jain, district-in-charge secretary Ramesh Jalake, Deputy Commissioner P Hemalata, zilla panchayat chief executive officer N S Prasanna Kumar, and zilla panchayat vice-president Sujata Vasudev, were also present.