Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah has threatened to launch an agitation if administrators were appointed to local bodies whose terms have ended.
Mr. Siddaramaiah told presspersons here on Sunday that appointing administrators to local bodies amounts to violation of Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act 1993 and the Congress party will protest against it.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said according to the constitutional guidelines, poll should be conducted immediately after the expiry of the term of the local bodies but the Government was violating the law and urged the Election Commission to take note of the violations which were “anti-democratic”. He said the BJP feared elections and hence was misusing the law to safeguard its interests.
Mr. Siddaramaiah demanded that the dates for the elections to local bodies be announced immediately and pointed out that there were 6,500 gram panchayats in the State and development works would suffer if the elections were not held. He said only an elected body can receive Union Government funds and this lapses in the absence of an elected body.
