Malnad Area Development Board will provide Rs 20 lakh for implementing various development works in each assembly segment coming under its purview in the year 2007-08.
The action plan of the year 2007-08 was approved in the general body meeting of the board held on Friday.
State government is providing Rs 41.66 crore grant for the board, while NABARD has extended Rs 4.28 crore financial aid. Of the total Rs 45.9 crore fund available with MADB each assembly segment is expected to get around Rs 20 lakh.
Speaking on the occasion, Legislators Araga Jnanendra and Jayaprakash Hegde urged the government to provide more funds for implementing development works.
Reacting to this, Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa clarified that State government is not in position to provide additional grants to the body and suggested MADB to mobilise resources from other sources. Reacting to MADB Chairperson Padmanabha Bhat’s letter to the State government seeking permission for borrowing Rs 100 crore from Nabard, Mr Yediyurappa assured that government will consider of according permission.
MLA Jayaprakash Hegde thanked the State government for rejuvenating the board. “For many years board functioned on the basis of adhoc arrangement in the absence of full time Chairperson and paucity of funds.
However with the State government addressing these problems this year,  the board will be able to put forth better performance,” he stated.
Voicing similar opinion MLA Araga Jnanendra stressed for trimming the board as many taluks were included in the MADB’s purview owing to political pressure. “Some problems are unique to Malnad region due to climatic and topographic features of the region. Action plan should be designed keeping these aspects in mind. Funds allotted by Karnataka Road Development Corporation will be of not much help for the region as the people in the region depend on pathways and brides constructed from wooden logs for crossing streams.
Therefore works related to construction of pathways, wooden bridges, hanging and string bridges should be accorded priority,” he demanded.
When members asked government’s permission for allotting works within Rs 5 lakh without floating tenders to accelerate the pace of implementing the same, Dy CM said that since Transparency Act has made it mandatory to allot the work through tender the norms should be honoured.
President of Chamarajanagar Zilla Panchayat Mr Nataraj who took part in the meet demanded MADB to provide funds for ZP and other local bodies to implement the work.
Raising objection to this, MLA Araga Jnanendra said that allotting funds to ZP will result in problems related to re-allotment of the same among the ZP members. Mr Yediyurappa said that though funds are allotted to Legislators but ZP is implementing agency as Engineering Division of ZP is assigned responsibility of implementing major part of the work. However he assured of considering the demand.
Expressing concern about the Naxal menace in Malnad region, MLA Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri suggested MADB to come out with concrete plan to tackle the problem. “Naxals are encashing on the prevailing socio-economic problem in Malnad region. MADB should design concrete plans to address these problems,” he suggested.
Though 13 districts come under the purview of the board but many Legislators abstained from the meeting. Minister K S Eshwarappa, Chairperson of Cashew Development Board Shakuntala Shetty, Legislators Mamani Karibasappa, Padmanabha Kottari, Basavanyappa and others took part in the meeting.