Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Jul 26: State third finance commission chairman A G Kodgi, participating in a review meeting, expressed his displeasure at the way the applications of the landless to regularize the government land on which they reside, are treated by the district administration. Why does the district administration ask them to shift to a place of their choice rather than legalizing the land on which they reside?  Their lands should be regularized unless they are situated in forests or by the side of highways, he felt.

Zilla panchayat members like Tungappa Bangera, Mamata Gatti and Sundar Gowda Icchila drew Kodgi's attention to the fact that no title deeds were issued to the landless in the district since the last seven years. The zilla panchayat efforts in this direction have not got anywhere, they lamented. The district has around 22,000 homeless people, they cited.

Head quarter's assistant in the deputy commissioner's office Prabhakar Sharma informed that the tahsildars have been directed to identify government lands for accommodating the homeless. Wherever surplus government land is not available, efforts are made to buy land. However it has become difficult to get any land for the rates the government offers for such lands, he explained. Title deeds have been issued to all those who applied under section 94 (c) and 50% of the people who submitted applications under the regular scheme for the homeless, he contended. In as many as 5,200 cases in the district, people to whom the houses were allotted do not reside there. They have given them to others, and the administration is planning to take back those houses as they already reside in their own houses, he said.

Kodgi also wanted the gram panchayats to stop supplying free drinking water to villagers and charge them, for better water management. He wanted public taps in villages to be removed and the water connections to be provided to houses alone, duly fitting water meters. This way, the gram panchayats can avoid utilizing development funds for paying electricity charges, he felt. The zilla panchayat members who participated in the discussions, favoured constructing check dams across rivulets to digging of borewells, to augment water resources.

He said that the commission headed by him, which is planning to submit its report to the government by December this year, has noted a sense of resentment among local bodies about increased interference by the state government in their domain. He also stressed on the need for the local bodies to strengthen house tax collection machinery, as a huge amount is pending under this head in almost all the local bodies. The commission at the same time is considering tabling a recommendation to the government to increase grants to local bodies, he explained.