Kota Srinivas Poojary, MLC, said on Thursday that construction activity in all villages had come to standstill as Gram Panchayats had failed to formulate by-laws for issuing building licences.
Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Poojary said that the High Court had ordered that all Gram Panchayats should have by-laws for issuing building licences in rural areas. He said if not the Gram Panchayats, the Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) could formulate the by-laws for issuing building licences. There are 5,629 Gram Panchayats in the State.
But neither the Gram Panchayats nor the Department had taken any action on this issue for the last three months. With the result, there were at least 100 applications for building licences pending in every Gram Panchayat. Though he had brought the matter to the notice of the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister, H.K. Patil, nothing had happened. The Ministry should immediately formulate the by-laws, he said.
In 2013-14, the State government had decided to double the honorarium paid to the Gram Panchayat members from Rs. 250 to Rs. 500. About six months back, the RDPR Department issued a circular stating that increased honorariums should be paid to the members with retrospective effect from April 1, 2014.
But now it had issued another circular stating the increased honorarium should be paid from January 1, 2015. The Gram Panchayats had been instructed to take back the additional honorarium already paid to them. The government should stick to its previous circular.
The government should take immediate steps to release the ration cards of people, which had got blocked. According to the government, eight lakh ration cards had been blocked in the State, but unofficially, it was being said that 25 lakh ration cards had been blocked. In Udupi district, nearly 20,000 ration cards had been blocked. With the result, many beneficiaries were not getting food-grains at subsidised rates.
Nearly 60 persons had lost their lives due to H1N1 influenza or swine flu in the State. The disease was spreading rapidly. There were reports of shortage of Tamiflu tablets. The government should provide free testing and treatment for those affected by the disease.
The government should regularise the services of 3,500 nurses, who were working on contract basis in the Health Department, Mr. Poojary said.
