Karnataka: Congress govt in no hurry to empower panchayats
The Congress is trying hard to come to power in places which have thrown up a fractured verdict.
Bengaluru: The three-tier panchayat raj system was implemented through a Constitutional amendment by the Congress government led by late Rajiv Gandhi but the Congress government in Karnataka is in no hurry to empower zills and taluk panchayats, a month after the poll results were announced.
Even now, many districts in the state had not sent the list of elected representatives to the rural development and panchayatraj department.
Highly placed sources in the government told Deccan Chronicle that the deputy commissioners of four districts, Bidar, Kalaburagi, Yadgir and Raichur, have not sent the list of elected representatives, which is a pre-requisite for gazetting the names.
Only after gazetting the names can the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) department work out a reservation matrix for ZP and TP president and vice-president posts.
Sources claimed that RDPR minister, H.K. Patil cannot ask the DCs to send the list as it would be perceived as interference in the election process.
A senior Congress leader said that a subtle message had been sent out by party bosses to a few districts not to send the list of elected representatives in order to thwart democratic process in these local bodies.
The Congress is trying hard to come to power in places which have thrown up a fractured verdict. To manouvre the election process and to lure Independents and other parties onto their side, the Congress has ensured the election process remains paralysed, sources added.