Members of the district unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged a dharna near Service Bus Stand here on Saturday and criticised the government for not enacting bylaws allowing construction of houses in gram panchayats across the State.
Addressing the protesters, Kota Srinivas Poojary, MLC and former Minister, said that gram panchayat offices had stopped issuing building licences to construct or renovate houses in rural areas for the last four months, following a direction by the High Court in connection with a case at Narikombu village in Dakshina Kannada.
The High Court had directed the government to form the necessary by-law for the purpose. But inactivity of the government had resulted in construction and renovation of all houses in 5,629 gram panchayats in the State coming to a grinding halt. Over two-and-a-half lakh applications for construction of houses were pending in the gram panchayats.
It was only last month that the government decided to elicit the opinion of the gram panchayats on the bylaws. But the government had sent the circular in English, and most gram panchayat members could not read English. Only 15 per cent of the gram panchayats had given their opinions, Mr. Poojary pointed out.
