JOIN USCasteism rules the roost in administration
The State government has miserably failed to realise the dream of ‘Swaraj’ of the Mahatma Gandhiji, said retired additional chief secretary Chiranjeevi Singh.
He was speaking at the one-day national conference on ‘Decentralised governance in rural development’ at the Institute of Developmental Studies here on Friday. Singh said power is being enjoyed by upper classes, rich and elite.
It is not known who is responsible for tardy progress of developmental works in the Panchayat Ray system whether it was officials or elected representatives. But they put blame on each other.
The panchayats get more funds if the ruling party belongs to the same party which holds the mantle of the State. Here too step-motherly attitude is being practiced.
This has affected development in rural areas despite decentralisation of power in the State.
He said in some years, the population of urban centres would reach 50 per cent due to influx of people from rural areas. The growth rate in urban areas would be more than 250 times than in rural areas. This is mainly due to lack of basic amenities in rural areas, he added. Singh noted that there is no dearth of funds for development programmes but they don’t have officials withy commitment and lack of vision for implementation of schemes. The Panchayat Raj system would have real meaning if the schemes were implemented with utmost dedication.
Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer G Satyavathi who inaugurated the workshop, said the ground realities vary when it comes to using power in decentralised system.
The biggest challenge before them was to strengthen the system. Funds is not the problem for rural development. Need of the hour was formulate rural development schemes after creating awareness among the masses. commitment from both the officials and the elected representatives was necessary in overall development of rural areas.
She said some panchayats have money but not spent because of village politics and role of unrecognised parties. The reason why Udupi and Dakshin Kannada districts are ahead in development is because the people want development so as the elected representatives. The recently elected Panchayat Development Officers were striving to adjust to panchayat administration and village politics.
Prof Satyanarayan, M Meera, Prof K V Aiyanna and Prof T M Mahesh also spoke.