The Hindu : `State yet to catch up with Kerala on panchayat raj'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 07, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

`State yet to catch up with Kerala on panchayat raj'

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE APRIL 6. Mani Shankar Aiyar, Chairman, Political Training Wing of the All India Congress Committee, said on Saturday that Kerala had scored over Karnataka by effectively implementing the panchayat raj system, and other Congress-ruled states such as Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh were doing fairly well in some aspects.

Mr. Aiyar, who is a part of the political think-tank of the party on issues such as panchayat raj and nagara palikas, was addressing presspersons here after attending a state-level convention on panchayat raj and nagara palikas.

He said the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh, was implementing the panchayat raj policy effectively. In Rajasthan, the Chief Minister, Ashok Geholt, was working towards decentralising administration. In Kerala, he said the "Ward Sabhas" were doing very well.

Stressing the need for better planning, Mr. Aiyar said Karnataka had a long way to go in making panchayat raj a people's movement. In Kerala, retired civil servants were involved in the job. According to him, Karnataka had to implement the "M. Aslam Plan" to help the State regain its position in relation to panchayat raj.

Mr. Aiyar was critical of the Chandrababu Naidu government in Andhra Pradesh for introducing bureaucracy in panchayat raj bodies with the Janmabhoomi programme.

On the grouse of many panchayat members about the rotation system, which discouraged them from taking up serious development activities in their wards, Mr. Aiyar admitted that it was a serious issue. In Tamil Nadu, the wards had not been changed for two terms and Karnataka could follow suit, he said. He agreed that frequent change of wards would breed corruption, and said Karnataka was free to adopt any model to suit its requirements.

Responding to a question on Iraq, he said the war was not ending as some people had believed. It was time for India to forge friendship with people in the U.S., the U.K., and Australia who were protesting against the war.

Mr. Aiyar said it was not easy for the U.S. and the U.K. to capture Iraq, going by the stiff resistance the allied forces were facing in places such as al Nasiriah and Um Qasr. It is inhuman to speak about rebuilding Iraq. It should be left to the people, he added.

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