Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram   

Plea to scrap MLA/MP funds, DRDAs

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM NOV. 10. The State Planning Board Vice-Chairman, V. Ramachandran, and the Planning Board member secretary, S.M. Vijayanand, have expressed themselves against provision of discretionary funds to MLAs and MPs and in favour of dissolution of the District Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs) that functioned parallel to panchayat raj institutions.

They are also of the view that the State Government should not try to control the panchayat raj institutions through officials, especially District Collectors and that the Central or State Government should not retain any power that would enable them to interfere with the functioning of the local self-Government institutions.

The views of the two important functionaries of the State Planning Board are contained in a list of `Do's and Don'ts' jointly prepared by them on a request from the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. The document, titled `Towards Time-Bound Panchayati Raj', has separate lists of instructions for the Government of India, State Governments and the Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs).

The `do's and don'ts' have been prepared on the strength of experience gained from the ambitious experiment in democratic decentralisation in Kerala over the last five years and discussions on the subject ever since the Constitution 73rd and 74th Amendments were mooted. The document should hopefully play a major role in policy formulation in relation to panchayat raj institutions across the country.

In fact, the `do's and don'ts' are addressed mainly to the Central and State Governments and some of the suggestions are path-breaking. They have suggested the creation of a separate Ministry for Local Governments at the Centre, dissolution of parallel bodies such as DRDAs, FFDAs, BFDAs and various health societies outside the panchayat raj system and legislative action to provide for creation of elected District Governments instead of District Panchayats, taxes in the local Government domain and audit control by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

The document has called upon the Union Government to avoid Centrally-sponsored schemes in areas which are the legitimate domain of panchayat raj institutions and to link the funds flow under the Centrally sponsored schemes to the degree of empowerment of the local bodies. It has also sought a commitment from the Union Government on devolution of funds to the panchayat raj institutions based on the division of responsibilities between the State and local governments. The Twelfth Finance Commission, the document says, should be specifically asked to look into the matter.

Mr. Ramachandran and Mr. Vijayanand are of the view that at least 2 per cent of the funds under Centrally sponsored schemes should be used for capacity building of local governments particularly in the area of accounting and audit and that an annual status report on panchayat raj institutions should be placed in Parliament along with the Budget. Ministries and departments dealing with subjects listed in the 11th Schedule should be merged and reduced and all Central Acts related to these subjects should be amended to give enough space to the local bodies.

They are of the view that State Governments should take the initiative to amend all legislations dealing with subject areas of local bodies so as to give them definite roles and to amend the business rules of the State legislature to make it mandatory for each Bill presented before the Legislature to be accompanied by a memorandum on implications for local governments. The local bodies should have total control over the staff working under them, legal mechanisms should be put in place to ensure fiscal responsibility and independent institutions should be set up to deal with malfeasance by local bodies and to hear appeals against decisions of the local bodies.

They have also cautioned against withdrawal of powers given to the local bodies through circuitous legislative means, conversion of local bodies into miniature State Governments by downloading the same procedures and systems to them and pitting community-based organisations and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) against the local bodies.

Mr. Ramachandran and Mr. Vijayanand are of the view that panchayat raj institutions can succeed only if they improved service delivery and encouraged people's participation in all services, held stakeholder consultations periodically and devoted considerable energy to local resource mobilisation through collection of taxes, user charges, contributions and voluntary work.

The panchayat raj institutions, they feel, should not be clones of the State Government or its departments in behaviour or in practice, should not bring in divisive politics in matters related to panchayat functioning, should avoid patronage while taking decisions, should not stifle diversity and should not go in for technologies and solutions while dealing with local development problems.

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