Local self-government department’s international meet under fire

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The department of local self-government has come under the wrath of local body leaders who have been left out of the three-day International Conference on Deepening Democracy (ICODD) being held at Kovalam from May 15 to 17.

Though experts from Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) were initially included in the seminar, later only its director Dr. P. P. Balan found a place in the inaugural and the plenary session.

Incidentally, the Thiruvananthapuram Road Development Company (TRDCL) has slapped notices on the organisers for putting up a number of arches on the city roads coinciding with the seminar.

The first ICODD seminar held in January 2014 had also courted a controversy when Rs 35 lakh was spent for publicity.

It was alleged that it had not produced the desired results for the local bodies as only international experts benefited from it. Ernakulam district panchayat president Eldos Kunnapally is the only notable local body leader expected to participate in the plenary session.

A prominent development economist told DC that the second seminar was just an extension of the previous year’s bash which was targeted at international experts.

“Look at all the major capital city roads where dozens of arches have been placed at vantage points. How such an international seminar will benefit the local body leaders when hardly any of them have been invited for it? KILA too has been ignored,” said the economist.

Mr S. Divakaran Pillai, retired accountant-general and chief coordinator of ICODD 2015, told DC that if the previous seminar gave thrust on deepening democracy through participatory local governance, the second one was on the theme of ‘Local governments and rights- based development.’ He confirmed that Rs 1. 5 crore had been earmarked for the second seminar.

“There are 16 technical sessions on local governments’ role with regard to right to information, rights of the aged, right to work, right to health, right to city, rights of Scheduled Castes and so on. The problem is that not many people know about their rights posing a hurdle to rights-based development of local governments,” said Mr. Pillai.