Suggesting the Commission various budgetary requirements to Dakshina Kannada at a review meeting held at the ZP auditorium here on Wednesday, the ZP members urged the Commission to increase the funds to various departments proportionately.
The Commission secretary T R Shashidhar and member T Thimme Gowda, who have already toured 23 districts across the State, listened to the opinions of the members and officials of various departments towards making recommendations to the government.
Member Sundar Gowda said each ZP member should be allotted a discretionary fund of Rs 30 lakh while the president should get Rs 50 lakh and the vice-president Rs 40 lakh.
Besides him, ZP chief Sucharitha Shetty and members like Venkat Dambekody, Mamatha Gatti and Shavul Hameed demanded that the institutions coming under Panchayat Raj system should be given more powers and the principle of decentralisation powers should be practiced in the true sense.
“The ZP has been suffering from lack of funds and insufficient powers. After Zilla Parishat was converted into Zilla Panchayat, the principle has actually become centralisation of powers, instead of its opposite,” rued Mr Sundara Gowda.
Mr Sucharitha Shetty said the ZP members were becoming more pessimists day by day due to the attitude of the government towards them.
They are not in a position to assure their financial help to their people like MLAs and MPs, he said.
Road maintenance
The prominent complaint raised before the Commission was that the district has been getting negligible amount towards the maintenance of roads. Most of the members suggested that road funds should be released on the basis of the climatic conditions of the region, instead of considering their total length.
Mr Venkat Dambekody said as the district gets heavy rainfall, it should be given more funds towards maintenance of roads.
ZP Chief Executive Officer A M Kunjappa said maintenance funds were being released only for the asphalted roads, adding that the district had got Rs 552 lakh for 7,986 km road under the 12th Finance Commission.
But the stretch of unasphalted roads is actually more than the asphalted ones, he noted.


OTHER DEMAND

Following are the further demands put forward by the members before the Finance Commission:
*   Increase the remuneration of the ZP members to Rs 5,000.
* Involve ZP members in Natural Disaster Management Committees.
* ZP members should be made the presidents of high school managements coming under their constituencies.
* The grant to Youth Affairs and Sports department should be increased to Rs 1 crore.


REPORT JUNE

The Third Finance Commission Member T Thimme Gowda said the Commission would submit its report to the government by June, hence the recommendations would not be implemented in the forthcoming budget.
He also stressed on the need to reduce non-plan expenditures and increase the plan expenditures, and expressed his wish to make strong recommendations to the government towards giving more powers to the ZP.