BJP workers hold protests against ‘anti-people' policies of State government outside 399 gram panchayats in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi: Capt. Chowta

The Hindu

4 hours ago

Member of Parliament and BJP State secretary Captain Brijesh Chowta said that the party workers protested against the 'anti-people' policies and failures of the Congress-led State government outside all 399 gram panchayat offices in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi on Monday.
Capt. Chowta who took part in the protest outside Gurupura Gram Panchayat office in Mangaluru taluk posted on X that 'Endless list of the government's failures include issues with 9/11 site regularisation, rejection of Akrama-Sakrama, hike in electricity tariffs, delay in approving for housing for the poor, old-age pension release issues and delay in release of funds under Sandhya Suraksha Scheme.'
Speaking at the protest site, Capt. Chowta said that the days are not far when people themselves will come onto the streets to protest against the government.
About Forms 9 and 11
Meanwhile, speaking at the protest outside Kotathattu Gram Panchayat (I) in Udupi district, Member of Parliament for Udupi-Chikkamagaluru, Kota Srinivas Poojary, stated that the State government had recently taken away the power to issue Form-9 and Form-11 certificates from gram panchayats by transferring it to the urban development authorities.
For the gram panchayats, Form-9 and Form-11 were essentially instruments for property tax collection. The government has made Form-9 and Form-11 mandatory documents for non-agricultural properties coming under the jurisdiction of grama panchayats for property registration. Hence, citizens seeking to sell their property were applying for Form 9 and 11 in the gram panchayats.
The government should restore the power of issuing the certificates to gram panchayats, he said.
Mr. Poojary said that with the latest decision of the government, about 10,000 files are pending for approval (for issuing the certificates) in the office of the Udupi Urban Development Authority alone. The decision has given scope for corruption in urban development authorities. The Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, should intervene to restore the powers to the gram panchayats.
The MP stated that the government has withheld over 9 lakh old-age pensions and 14 lakh Sandhya Suraksha schemes in the State under the guise of reviewing them. The government should not stop them from getting what they deserve.
Mr. Poojary said that the government should establish a Special Investigation Team to probe the allegations of corruption made by senior Congress MLA B.R. Patil regarding the allotment of houses to the poor by the Rajiv Gandhi Housing Development Corporation.