Congress will go it alone in all polls: Thangkabalu

The Congress will, hereafter, go it alone in all elections, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president K.V. Thangkabalu announced here on Wednesday.

This has been the desire of all party workers and hence the party is contesting independently in the local body polls, he said.

Addressing a press conference here after releasing the party manifesto, he demanded that all rural local bodies in the State be vested with powers to discharge the functions envisaged under the 73{+r}{+d} Amendment to the Constitution.

The Amendment specified 29 functions for local bodies. “However, as per the law in Tamil Nadu, there is no scope for Panchayati Raj institutions to discharge many of these functions,” he lamented.

For instance, he said elementary and middle schools, primary health centres and dispensaries were expected to be governed by local bodies under the Amendment. But, under the Tamil Nadu Panchayat Act, 1994, school teachers and other personnel and health staff came under the control of the State government.

“This is totally contrary to what is envisaged in the amendment.”

Besides, the very basis of Panchayati Raj institutions in the country was that the heads of these bodies should also function as the executive head. But, the State government was unwilling to vest these heads with even the executive powers enjoined by the Tamil Nadu Panchayat Act 1958, under which a number of officials were under their control. “They can even write their confidential reports.”

Mr. Thangkabalu found the powers for dissolving village panchayats and panchayat union councils vested with the Collector and the State government, “totally unwanted and reprehensible.”

Similarly, he expressed the party's opposition to the powers of the State government to dismiss the elected district panchayat chairman and chairmen of the panchayat union and also the powers vested with the Collector to dismiss the president of the panchayat board.

He contended that placing the budget of these local bodies under the control of the Collector/ State government was against their autonomy. Regretting that local bodies were starved of funds because the State government was unwilling to help them out, he pleaded that the latter should share at least 30 per cent of its revenue with local bodies as against the current 10 per cent.