Kerala is unlikely to regain its numero uno status in decentralised planning and development at the grass-roots level in the country. The Union Panchayat Raj Ministry is understood to have completed the process of rating the performance of local self-government institutions during 2012-13 under the Panchayat Empowerment and Accountability Incentive Scheme (PEAIS).
The lackadaisical attitude of the State government in apprising the Centre of its prime initiatives for strengthening and institutionalising the devolution of powers to local bodies and incremental developments is understood to have spoiled the chances of the State regaining its prime position yet again.
The Union Panchayati Raj Ministry engages a professional agency to evaluate the performance of the local bodies in the country as per a cumulative devolution index and the achievers are announced as part of the Panchayat Day celebrations on April 24 every year. Though Kerala had been successively winning the PEAIS award in 2009-10 and 2010-11, it lost out to Sikkim in 2011-12 and this year too it is unlikely to get the award.
Informed sources told The Hindu on Friday that Maharashtra and Karnataka are likely to share the first two honours and Kerala may have to be satisfied with a third position. The Kerala government as well as the Local Self-Government Department used to take concerted efforts to monitor the performance of the local bodies in the State and give due support to the best practices evolved by them.
Following the trifurcation of the department, there has been no coordinated initiative for performance evaluation and there have been not much significant gains for winning such accolades. The reported destabilisation of District Planning Committees (DPCs) and inconsistency in preparing Plan guidelines and in the preparation and execution of projects have all eclipsed the incremental gains made by the State over the years since the devolution of powers and funds to the local self-governments.
During the tenure of the previous Left Democratic Front government, the Ministry as well as senior officials used to work in tandem for crystallising the gains and report it to the Centre in time. The department trifurcation has upset the process and even notable strides made by the Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) for strengthening grama sabhas and introduction of double-entry accounting system in local governments are not taken up with the Centre within the prescribed time.
This is even being cited as a bid to undermine the decentralisation of powers and further fortify the bureaucratisation as a continuation to the decision to scrap expert committees for vetting the projects, sources said.
