The Hindu

• Many villages not getting proper water supply, says member 
• Circular to be issued to GPs to include ZP members in panel meetings
• There is a 65 per cent shortage of staff in the zilla panchayat office

Udupi, Aug 21: The issue of constitution of the Village Water Supply and Sanitation Committees (VWSSCs) dominated the general body meeting of the Udupi Zilla Panchayat here on Wednesday.

Raising the issue, Bhujanga Shetty said that many villages were not getting proper water supply because of problems such as machinery breakdown and lack of spare parts to repair pumpsets. There was no proper supervision of the water supply schemes and projects at the gram panchayat level.

Heroor village under Chantar Gram Panchayat had not received water for the past 15 days. It would be better if the members of the taluk panchayats and zilla panchayat were appointed to VWSSCs, he said.

The nodal officers were not doing their work properly. Since a meeting of the gram panchayat secretaries was being held once in two months, they could be told to supervise the working of the VWSSCs, Mr. Shetty said.

Madan Kumar, member, said that water dues had not been paid in many villages. It must be for this reason that the Government wanted representatives from the women’s self-help groups and youth associations to be part of VWSSCs, he said.

Intervening, the president of the zilla panchayat Raju Poojary said that the executive officers of the taluk panchayats concerned should monitor the functioning of the VWSSCs. The Government wanted VWSSCs to be constituted so that there was prompt supply of potable water to the people and proper collection of water tariff. The executive officers should give details about the functioning of VWSSCs in their taluks at the next zilla panchayat meeting, he said.

Leader of the Opposition Gerald Fernandes said that the zilla panchayat members should not interfere in the functioning of the gram panchayats. It was against the concept of decentralisation as envisaged in the Panchayati Raj Act.

To which Mr. Shetty said that while the zilla panchayat members should not interfere, they could intervene in the interests of good governance.

Chief Executive Officer of the zilla panchayat Prasanna Kumar said that in many villages, pumpsets above 50 hp were being used. This led to unnecessary consumption of power.

Mr. Poojary said that the zilla panchayat would issue a circular to all gram panchayats to include zilla panchayat members as special invitees to the meetings of the VWSSCs.

Pratapchandra Shetty, MLC, said that this would give the gram panchayats the option to invite the zilla panchayat members to the meetings of VWSSCs.

Mr. Poojary said that there was a 65 per cent shortage of staff in the zilla panchayat office. The posts of 14 wardens, five superintendents and two cooks were vacant in the hostels run by the Social Welfare Department.

The meeting decided to pass a resolution to urge the district in-charge Minister V.S. Acharya to take up the matter with the State Government.