Legislators slam indifference of ZP officials
Decentralisation: Shirking responsibility
Zilla panchayat (ZP) officials were at the receiving end as elected representatives slammed them at the review meeting of Karnataka Development Programme (KDP) for failing to implement projects effectively.
The KDP review meeting being held after a period of eight months witnessed a flurry of events as legislators led by leader of opposition in the legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah slammed medical education and district in-charge minister S A Ramdas, deputy commissioner P S Vastrad and ZP CEO G Sathyavathi for failing to convene the meeting at regular intervals.
Siddaramaiah took Sathyavathi to task for failing to convene the review meeting, which is mandated to be held every three months.
Seeking an explanation from Sathyavathi, MLA H C Mahadevappa asked, “What made you delay (the meeting) for so long?” Continuing he said, “You have not followed provisions of the Act... It amounts to breach of privilege to the MLAs.”
The MLAs calmed down after the intervention of district in-charge minister Ramdas and ZP CEO assuring that the meetings would be held at regular intervals. Ramdas announced that the next three KDP meetings would be held on September 9, December 9 and March 9, 2012.
Later, legislators and MP R Dhruvanarayan raised complaints against the district administration for failing to grant the funds under the MLA and MPLAD schemes. Dhruvanarayan reprimanded the deputy commissioner for keeping funds up to the tune of Rs 1.60 crore pending for the last two years.
When Vastrad sought to give an explanation, Siddaramaiah retorted, “You have to complete within five years; My term is for five years, who are you to come in the way?”
Answering the MLAs query, Vastrad said that a few guidelines hadn’t allowed them to take action. A furious Siddaramaiah said, “Adyavadri guideline naanu nodadeirodu? (Which is that guideline that I haven’t seen?)”
Later, the MLA explained the guidelines to the deputy commissioner and asked to implement projects at the earliest.
Earlier, MLA Mahadevappa slammed the ZP CEO for failing to give signed copy of documents to the legislators and instructed her to ensure that such incident doesn’t repeat in future.
Legislators took officials of the agriculture department, public works department, education department and ZP assistant secretary Gopal and several others to task for failing to furnish sufficient details.
MLAs M Sathyanarayana, K Venkatesh, H P Manjunath, Chikkanna and others were present.
