The issues of drinking water and ration cards dominated the general body meeting of Udupi Taluk Panchayat (TP) here on Tuesday. Raising the issue, Devadas Hebbar, said that many drinking water projects were half complete in many Gram Panchayats. In some villages pipelines had been laid but no water was flowing into it. There was a complete lack of coordination between the Gram Panchayats and the Zilla Panchayat Engineering Division – the agency executing the works. Many Gram Panchayats did not even know about the works being implemented in their jurisdiction, he said.
Veronica Carnelio, member, said all the plans approved by the Taluk Panchayat found their place in the Action Plan. The Taluk Panchayat should email copies of the Action Plan directly to the Gram Panchayats so that they were kept abreast of all projects, he said.
Intervening, D. Manjunathayya, Executive Officer of Taluk Panchayat, said that the ZP Engineering Division had been directed to give all the details of the projects to the presidents of the Gram Panchayats at a meeting few days ago.
When members raised the issue of problems faced by people in revising their ration cards, Deputy Tahsildar Sadashiva Shetty said 11 private service centres or franchises had been started in different parts of Udupi city to speed up the revision of ration cards. Just because the ration cards were being revised, no fair price shop could deny foodgrains to the beneficiaries, he said.
‘Increase grants’
Pramod Madhwaraj, MLA, said he would urge the Rural Development Minister H.K. Patil to increase grants to taluk panchayats. He would take up the delay in release of funds under the Basava Vasati Yojana with Housing Minister M.H. Ambareesh.
