Village extension officer's post to be scrapped from today

It will be replaced by the post of Panchayat Development Officer

Addressing the ‘Samparka Sabhe,’ Panchayat elected representatives and officials at NGO hall on Thursday, Mangalore Tahshildar Ravichandra Nayak, said that the process of appointing the PDOs is on at the government level and over 40 per cent of the posts of PDOs will be filled by promoting competitive and efficient VEOs. Accordingly, 67 posts of PDOs will be created in Dakshina Kannada district for which 28 VEOs will be promoted.

Responding to problems pertaining to Nemmadi Kendra, Nayak said that everyday they receive 500 to 1,000 applications and processing the same becomes difficult as there is a manpower crunch.

He said that a new system called OTCS will be in place from next year onwards, which will reduce the burden on Nemmadi Kendras and will  also ease out the queues.

Village Accounts and other officials will go from house to house and collect income and cast details.

This will be fed into the system. Once the system is in place, caste certificate can be received in an hour or so.

As far as ration cards are concerned, Nayak said that the cards have been printed but they have not yet been dispatched. Once the cards are received, they will be distributed immediately. He responded to various questions on Akrama Sakrama, issue of title deeds etc.

Ganga Kalyan

Members from various Panchayats raised objection over inefficient implementation of Ganga Kalyan Project. Responding to the same, Zilla Panchayat CEO P Shivashankar said that Gram Panchayats in Dakshina Kannada have to repay a sum of Rs 11 crore to Mescom and GPs must retrospect on these lines.

“Even when the bills are waived off, the Government will have to pay the amount to Mescom and to do so, the Government will cut off parts of the funds to be allocated to the GPs. Ultimately its your loss. Take steps to repay the sum slowly from your side by motivating people, instead of waiting for the government to waive it off,” he said and added that drinking water system, good enough for 32 lakh people has been provided in rural areas, while the population using it is only 12 lakh, hence this population of 12 lakh utilising the system will have to pay for the system provided for 32 lakh population.

The CEO also said that the Ganga Kalyan has been misused by the GPs. He pointed that as against the rule, which says that the project must be taken up in the name of the committee formed by the beneficiaries, it is here owned by the GPs themselves and that is precisely the reason why the electricity bills have ran wayward.

“GPs must take steps to hand over the project to the committee of beneficiaries at the earliest and till GPs do it, they will have to pay the electricity bill to Mescom,” he said.

Sampoorna Swachatha

The CEO said that Dakshina Kannada district has been identified in the nation with regard to implementation of Sampoorna Swachatha Andolan and it will have to stand by this status and all the GPs will have to work hard towards winning ‘Sampoorna Swacha Zilla award at the national level, which will bring a cash prize of Rs 50 lakhs.

As Dakshina Kannada is the only district in fray from the State, he said that all the GPs which have bagged the Nirmal Gram Puraskar as well as those who have not won it will have to work equally hard because the national-level prize will go away even if one GP fails.

ZP President Venkat Dambekodi, TP President Ramachandra Kumpala, Vice-President Sriyala G Hegde, Executive Officer Kantharaju and others were present.

DH News Service