Speaking at the inaugural function of a prelude conference on ‘Role of Panchayat Bodies in Rural Development’ organised by Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) and Vivekananda Institute for Leadership Development at Ahimsa Hall at V-Lead here on Saturday, he said it was difficult to imagine rural development under such governments.
Stating that it was not appropriate to close down schools because parents send their wards to English medium private schools instead of government schools, Vishwanath said closing down Kannada medium schools was akin to murdering the language itself.
He said those who ruled the country in the initial years of independence did not give priority to education, if they had concentrated on education the country would have developed tremendously.
Ninety per cent of peoples’ representatives — at all levels — come from rural background, but none of them have realised the importance of Panchayat Raj.
Now, even though the Centre has initiated various useful programmes for rural development, peoples’ representatives and government officials do not show interest in their implementation.
Panchayat development officer (PDO) posts were created to bring progress at the grassroots level, highly educated people — including software engineers — had applied and were selected, but most of them resigned later, owing to harassment by their higher-ups.
The system at the grassroots level is rotten, it is destroying the panchayat raj system. President of Mysore branch of IIPA M Umapathy, zilla panchayat vice-president Shivaram and secretary of IIPA J Somasekhar were present on the occasion.