Siddaramaiah tells officials to place recommendations of district and taluk planning bodies in pre-Budget meetings
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday told the Karnataka State Policy and Planning Commission and the Karnataka State Decentralised Planning and Development Committee to place the recommendations of the taluk- and district-level planning committees in the pre-Budget meetings.
The Chief Minister chaired a meeting of the two bodies and said taluk- and district-level planning committees need to be strengthened to further empower the Panchayat Raj system and to formulate schemes as per the requirements of people.
Elections not held
The District Planning Committees (DCP) and Taluk Planning Committees (TPC) have apparently become ineffective as elections have not been held for zilla and taluk panchayats. Currently, the district in-charge Ministers chair the meeting of these committees.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said he had announced in the State Budget for 2023-24 that responsibility mapping had to be done regarding the functioning of Panchayat Raj organisations as per the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution.
Responsibility mapping
Accordingly, the Rural Development Department has prepared a responsibility map for 13 departments, out of which the responsibility maps for the functioning of nine departments, including Health, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Welfare, Backward Classes and Minority Welfare, Agriculture, Watershed Development, Horticulture, and Sericulture have been notified. However, responsibility mapping of Women and Child Welfare, Education, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries departments was not notified so far, he said.
The Chief Minister directed officials to complete the responsibility mapping of all departments by this August 15. He instructed the officials to submit a proposal to the government regarding the Revenue and Panchayat Raj departments' decisions on re-surveying villages and fixing boundaries. He also instructed the officials to submit proposals for establishing a land bank to develop infrastructure for urban and rural local bodies.
Noting that people's involvement was important in the decentralisation, he said public opinions should be respected. Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission B.R. Patil had been told to tour the State regularly to understand the ground situation, the Chief Minister said.
Mr. Patil told officials to adopt a bottom-up approach while formulating plans and schemes for the benefit of the needy.
Decentralisation needed
Mr. Siddaramaiah said he was in favour of decentralisation, and rural local bodies need to be empowered. He instructed officials to ensure implementation of the reservation in urban and rural local bodies as per the provisions of the Panchayat Raj Act.
Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge, chairman of the Fifth Finance Commission and former MP C. Narayanaswamy, Chief Secretary Shalini Rajneesh, and senior officials attended the meeting.
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