JOIN USThe protest was in support of the meeting held in front of the chief minister’s residence in Bangalore on Tuesday by the Federation of President, Vice-President and Members of Grama Panchayat.
They sought more powers to gram panchayats as part of decentralisation of power in the panchayat raj system.
Though, the successive government’s promised to delegate additional powers to gram panchayats, all those in power have only worked towards centralisation of power instead of decentralisation. They sought hike in the honorarium with Rs 5,000 for the ZP president, Rs 3,000 for the vice-president and Rs 2,000 for the members.
They said GPs received maximum funds from the Central government, but there was no effective utilisation of the grant. Grama panchayats had little scope to guide the implementation of various schemes.