District panchayat approves projects worth Rs.440 crore

249 projects to be implemented jointly with grama panchayats

The Administrative Committee meeting of the Thrissur District Panchayat has approved 1,555 projects worth Rs. 440 crore as part of the 12th five-year plan.

It included 249 projects, which will be implemented jointly with the grama panchayats, Rs. 54 crore worth projects for the development of roads and projects worth Rs. 54 crore for the modernisation of farms and schools.

The other major allocations are State development projects (Rs. 10 crore); Scheduled Tribes (Rs. 2 crore; Scheduled Caste (78 crore); general (11 crore) and women (10 crore), according to acting president Anil Akkara.

A press release form the district panchayat noted that only Rs. 300 crore had been utilised for development projects till 2010 since the formation of the district panchayat in 1995, lack f utilisation of funds for the Scheduled Caste sector saw poor allocation of funds in the past years. But in the past two years 99 per cent of the funds in the sector was utilised when projects were implemented in co-operation with the grama panchayats, Mr. Akkara said.

So, the district will get an additional Rs. 20 crore in the sector this year, he said.

“The district panchayat plans total revamp of the implementation process and a comprehensive development this year.

A calendar will be set up to implement the projects in time-bound manner. Technical sanction will be given for the projects in 30 days. Even the period of completion of each project has been pre-determined,” he said.

For example, “780 days have been allotted for the irrigation project of the district panchayat , which will conserve water for farming during summer. In all, 150 days have been earmarked for the development of village roads from January to May. The working calendar is expected to make implementation of the projects more transparent,” Mr. Akkara said.

A district-level monitoring committee and a division level monitoring committee will be set up to review the implementation of projects.

The committees will submit progress reports every three months.

The meeting was presided over by Mr. Akkara. Standing committee chairpersons R.P. Basheer, Shajeena Majeed, Vidhya Sangeeth, former district panchayat president K.V. Dasan, former vice-president T.Nirmala and others participated.