Bengaluru, Oct 14 Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Wednesday said the government would take steps to strengthen the financial position of gram panchayats and improve decentralised governance.
Chairing a meeting of the Karnataka State Decentralisation Planning and Development Committee here, he said a committee headed by the Rural Development Minister would be constituted to examine the recommendations of the Fifth State Finance Commission on fund allocation and administrative reforms.
The committee would identify recommendations that could be implemented and submit a report, according to a release from the CMO.
Shivakumar said Rs 1,261 crore had been released to gram panchayats, Rs 557 crore to taluk panchayats and Rs 183 crore to zilla panchayats under the Fifth State Finance Commission’s recommendations.
Stressing the need to strengthen urban local bodies in keeping with the spirit of the 74th Constitutional Amendment, he said consultations would be held with experts from the National Law School of India University to explore suitable amendments to the relevant laws.
The CM said ward meetings, on the lines of gram sabhas, should be used to formulate and implement development plans for urban local bodies.
District, taluk and village-level planning committees had already been constituted, and all such committees had been directed to meet once every three months and submit reports, he said.
The government would issue guidelines for implementing the ‘People’s Plan’, announced in the state Budget, to incorporate public demands from the grassroots into the state Budget.
The Rural Development and Urban Development departments had been directed to issue the necessary guidelines and develop software to facilitate the initiative. Funds should be provided to establish planning management units at the district and taluk levels, he said.
All departments had been asked to prepare responsibility matrices outlining their roles in implementing schemes relating to gram, taluk and zilla panchayats and submit them within the stipulated deadline.
Responding to a proposal to allocate a share of Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue to rural and urban local bodies, Shivakumar said a proposal would be submitted to the GST Council.
He said a proposal would be sought from the minister concerned on establishing the Karnataka Panchayat Administrative Service.
Shivakumar directed officials to expedite the demarcation of ‘gramathana’ boundaries using data available under the Centre’s SVAMITVA scheme. He also asked the Panchayat Raj and Revenue departments to coordinate to complete the exercise.
He said the government had taken note of the revenue loss suffered by gram panchayats after the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) assumed the authority to levy taxes on industries.
The law provides for 30 per cent of the property tax collected by the authority to be allocated to gram panchayats, he said. He directed officials to provide complete details of the taxes collected by the authority so far and the amounts distributed to the panchayats.
(PTI News)
