Udupi ZP urged not to collect toll on GP roads

In the Zilla Panchayat meeting in the city on Thursday, the members raised the issue of toll collection on Gram Panchayat roads.

Members Janardan Thonse and Reshma wanted to know the grounds on which the construction of toll gate was allowed on the road in Hejamady Gram Panchayat limits. They condemned the act of Navayug company.

People in the Gram Panchayat limits are compelled to lay the toll. The toll can only be collected on national highway, the members said.

Navayug company engineer Gururaj said that heavy vehicles have been using the Gram Panchayat roads to skip the toll on the national highway. Therefore, a toll gate was set up in Hejamady. Permission has been obtained from the deputy commissioner and the principal secretary of the department concerned, he said.

The members urged him to produce the permission letter and asked whether permission was obtained from the Gram Panchayat.

The official justified that the toll centre was set up in the land acquired by the company. No rules have been floated, he said and showed the documents regarding the permission granted by the government.

The meeting resolved to urge the government not to collect toll in the roads falling under the limits of Gram Panchayats and relaxation should be provided to the vehicles of local registration (KA 20).

Member Janardan Thonse took the officials to task for not processing the ration cards even though the people have applied for BPL card one year ago.

An official said that 25,488 applications have been received for BPL cards and 19,274 of the applications have been disposed of and 6,214 applications are pending. These applications were submitted in 2017-18.

No instruction has been issued by the government so far to distribute new ration cards. The applications submitted before January 2017, have been cancelled, he said.

Tonse alleged that the people whose applications have been cancelled are not informed about it.

The officer said that as the government issued a circular saying that the applicants have to submit the income and caste certificate of all members of the family to get the ration cards, in January 2017 to June 2018, many applications were cancelled as those documents were not submitted. The rule has changed from last June and it is sufficient to provide the income and caste certificate of one member of the family, he said.

Zilla Panchayat CEO Shivanand Kapashi asked the official to write to the government on the technical hurdles.

Rain relief grants sought

The members urged to provide the details regarding the compensation amount sanctioned by the government for rain relief.

The CEO said that a proposal has been submitted to the government to sanction grants for rain relief measures - Rs 20 crore loss has been estimated in Udupi, Rs 17 crore in Kundapur, Rs 35 crore in Karkala, Rs 22.59 crore in Baindur, Rs 19 crore in Brahmavar and Rs 26 crore in Kaup. An amount of Rs 4 crore has been released to Udupi towards relief from natural calamity and Rs 14.50 crore towards infrastructure.

The members decided to pass a resolution in the meeting requesting the government to release more grants.

Other issues

Issues on the confusions regarding the flouting of rules in the formation of school development and monitory committees in primary schools and ambiguity regarding land conversion were discussed during the meeting.

Zilla Panchayat President Dinakara Babu and Vice President Sheela K Shetty were present in the meeting.