Southern States
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Karnataka
Govt. yet to formally constitute DPCs
By Our Special Correspondent
HUBLI, Jan. 24. Has the State Government given wrong information on the constitution of the district planning committees (DPCs) as required under Article 243 (2D) of the Constitution (74th constitutional amendment) to help facilitate the process of decentralised planning?
It appears so judging by the information given to the task force constituted by the Union Government on the devolution of powers to the panchayat raj institutions in the State.
Incidentally, the Secretary to the Department of Panchayat Raj and Rural Development, Karnataka, was one of the members of the eight-member task force.
The DPCs are required to be set up in every district to prepare composite plans covering urban and rural areas.
Even years after the enactment of the amendment, not all the States and Union Territories have been able to set up the DPCs. Karnataka is one of the 11 States and Union Territories to have set up the DPCs, according to the task force.
The governments in the State have been dragging feet on the constitution of the DPCs in Karnataka. The previous Janata Dal Government took steps to have election of the nominees from the urban and local bodies to the DPCs in each district, but the body itself was not constituted at all.
The Government was in a dilemma, especially over the paraphernalia to be provided to the Chairman and the possibility of the Chairman emerging as one more centre of power in the district. The State Government used this dilemma as an alibi to postpone the decision and those who were elected to the DPCs had to cool their heels without being able to do anything.
The uncertainty continued even after the Congress assumed power. The State Government was not enthusiastic about it, despite the repeated assertions by the Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, M.Y.Ghorpade.
But unlike what he did last time on the question of holding elections to the panchayat raj institutions in his earlier stint under Veerappa Moily, when Mr. Ghorpade resigned over the delay in holding the poll, he did not make the constitution of the DPCs as a prestige issue this time.
Though the election of the members of the DPCs from the urban and the local bodies has been completed, there has been no word from any district of the DPCs having been constituted formally.
Mr. Ghorpade, who attended the function to launch the DPC in Gadag, the home district of the Water Resources Minister, H.K.Patil, went all out to praise the quick work done.
Barring that, there has been no report of any district having activated the DPC after choosing the nominees through election from the local self-governments.
If holding election to the DPCs is to be interpreted as having constituted the same, the Government is right in the information given to the task force. If it means that the DPCs have started the process of planning from the grassroots level, the answer is no, according to sources.
Haryana has constituted DPCs in only four districts, whereas in Manipur it has been done in two of the four districts.
The chairperson of the zilla panchayats have been named chairmen in Kerala, Manipur, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Ministers have been given the charge in Madhya Pradesh, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh.
District planning committees have not been constituted in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.
In Pondicherry no election has been held, while it is not considered applicable to Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland.
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