In a first of its kind move in the district, the Naravi Gram Panchayat, which covers the Maoist-infested villages Naravi and Kuthlur, has constructed a state-of-the-art building for the panchayat at a cost of Rs 80 lakh.
The village residents and local organisations have contributed a sum of Rs 20 lakh for the building construction.
Inaugurating the new building on Monday, District In-charge Minister B Ramanath Rai felt for a need to strengthen the Panchayat Raj system.
Rai said the Panchayat Raj system has opened itself to many positive changes due to the Panchayat Raj (Amendment)Act 1973, when compared to earlier times. “There was a time when only people from influential communities had representations in Gram Panchayats. But today, even people from the lower strata of the society have been heading the Gram and Zilla Panchayats,” he added.
He said 29 new Panchayats have been formed in Dakshina Kannada district and the state government has set up a committee for Panchayat development under the leadership of Minister K R Ramesh Kumar, he stated.
The minister said Bapuji Seva Kendra has been started to provide 100 essential services to the people. Among them, 40 are related to revenue, 43 are Panchayat-related and 17 are other services. About 5,000 RTCs have been distributed to people in 230 Gram Panchayats through Bapuji Seva Kendra.
MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, who was the chief guest, said Gandhiji’s dream of national development through self-reliant villages could be fulfilled when Gram Panchayats are not involved in party politics.
He stated, “The Gram Panchayats must try to develop villages in an integrated way by utilising funds granted by the state and the Union governments. Non-availability of title deeds, lack of own building and lack of direct funds have been haunting the Gram Panchayats,” he added.
Kateel urged the MLAs and MLCs to put forth the demand for direct funds before the government. He noted that many gram panchayats have not been able to take up development projects despite having a master plan, due to lack of direct funds.
A rare occasion
It was a rare occasion as all the invitees whose names had been included in the invitation, were present during the programme. They were Belthangady MLA Vasant Bangera, Zilla Panchayat President Meenakshi Shantigodu, MLC Pratap Chandra Shetty, MLC Kota Srinivas Poojary, Belthangady Taluk Panchayat President Divyajyoti, Naravi Gram Panchayat President P Ravindra Poojary, Zilla Panchayat member from Naravi, Dharanendra Kumar, Taluk Panchayat member from Naravi Roopalata and Zilla Panchayat CEO P I Srividya.
