he government and the Opposition have remained on different pages over the apportioning of the Local Administration Department to three different ministries — rural affairs, panchayat, and urban affairs.
The government has been upbeat about the new setup, which was introduced in the wake of Manjalamkuzhi Ali getting a berth in the Cabinet ending IUML’s protracted battle that threatened to upset the UDF applecart in the early days of the Oommen Chandy government. The Opposition, however, insists it is a ‘Tughlaqian’ reform.
“The people have paid a heavy price for this needless reform,” says Thomas Isaac, MLA.
Appraising it on the touchstone of the people’s planning programme, which had earned the State laurels at the national level, Mr. Isaac said in a Facebook post that the present system made for cumbersome procedures, lopsided planning, and sloppy implementation, rendering administration of local bodies unwieldy. This, he thinks, will influence the poll outcome.
While the local bodies came under severe flak for sloppy utilisation of Plan funds in the fiscal ending 2014, they put up a better show in the last fiscal. However, the State Finance Commission in July castigated several of them for serious slip-ups in fund utilisation and tax collection. Eleven municipalities just about used 47 per cent of the funds available while some city Corporations failed to touch the 50 per cent mark. The picture was not edifying in district panchayats either.
While the Opposition attributes the poor show to the reform, Panchayat Minister M.K. Muneer says that the ‘coordination committee’ formed to integrate the activities of the local body arms of the three ministries unburdened the process.
“The local bodies department has not been trifurcated. It has a single Principal Secretary, an Urban Affairs Secretary, a Chief Town Planner and others. The committee meets every Wednesday ahead of the Cabinet meeting to take policy decisions and issue guidelines. Since the committee has representatives from all departments, it obviates the need for a file to be referred to the Cabinet for each and everything. Only important files are sent to the Cabinet,” he told The Hindu .
Urban Affairs Minister Manjalamkuzhi Ali echoes him, maintaining that the system has done away with bureaucratic procedures.
P.T. Mathew, president, Kerala Grama Panchayat Association, claims over 80 per cent utilisation of Plan fund by grama panchayats under the new system. “It has tremendously eased the way business is done,” he says.
U.R. Babu, outgoing chairman of Muvattupuzha municipality, rubbishes the claims citing contradictory orders issued by the ministries on the same issue. “As in the case of contracting public works, for instance, when the Urban Affairs Department wanted contractors to procure tar, the Panchayats Department asked the local bodies to procure it themselves, forcing the Urban Affairs Department to reverse its order. There were several such instances — all thanks to the trifurcation,” he laments.
