Date:20/05/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/05/20/stories/2007052017800300.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Amendments to PR Act condemned

Special Correspondent

Bangalore: The Grama Swarajya Vedike has condemned the amendments to the Karnataka Panchayati Raj Act, recently passed by the State legislature.

Speaking to presspersons on Saturday, Venkat Rao Ghorpade, Sunanda Jayaram and S. Janardhan of the vedike said the amendments had given "undue powers" to MLAs over gram sabha and gram panchayat members, which ran contrary to the spirit of decentralisation.

The vedike, along with panchayat members and like-minded organisations, would launch a Statewide agitation against the amendments, Mr. Ghorpade said.

The Institute of Social Change has called a meeting on May 27 in which panchayat members from district, taluk and village levels, besides organisations working in the area, would participate. The future course of action would be decided at the meeting, he said. Representatives of the vedike said the amendments passed in April and now pending before the Governor for his assent, give MLAs the power to identify beneficiaries in all housing and other schemes funded by the Government. An earlier amendment, made in 2003, had taken away these powers from the MLAs and had vested it with panchayat bodies, causing resentment among MLAs.