JOIN USZP meet: Committee irked over pending payments
With local bodies yet to donate their share of the statutory contribution for the District Planning Committee, the Committee instructed the local administrations to ensure that the contributions are made by the end of March.
The local bodies, which include Mysuru City Corporation, Taluk Municipal Councils and Gram Panchayats of the district, have kept Rs 2.05 crore, to be contributed to the Committee, pending during the financial year.
At a meeting of the Committee held on Tuesday, Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer, P A Gopal complained that apart from Zilla Panchayat, which also contributes funds to the Committee, no other local body had made the mandatory contribution. He said that despite repeated reminders from the Zilla Panchayat to these local bodies, they have not responded positively, he said.
Even though the contributions are made to the District Committee, the funds are sent to the State government. The State Planning Committee decides on the implementation of these funds, he said.
Of the Rs 2.05 crore, Rs 40.28 lakh has been kept pending by Mysuru City Corporation and Town Municipal Council; Rs 19.25 lakh by taluk panchayats; and Rs 1.46 crore by 235 gram panchayats in the district.
During the discussion, elected representatives complained that one of the causes for the delay in statutory contribution was the lack of awareness about the same.
Officials of the local administration, they alleged, had kept them in the dark about the same. Gopal said that a workshop would be convened shortly to discuss the same, within a fortnight.
D Padmanabha, member of the Committee, noting its role, said that Zilla Panchayat was not holding quarterly meetings of the Committee, as per the guidelines. “The Committee has little information about the decisions it has taken in the past and the projects it has proposed. When this is the case, organising the meeting is meaningless,” he said.
Following the remarks, it was decided to hold the quarterly meetings without fail.Members of the Committee also took objection to the Human Development report of the district, stating that the report had only the data provided by officials.
Elected representatives should be taken into confidence, and the report should be resubmitted, the members demanded.