Udupi : At a press conference held here on Wednesday Feb 03, A.G. Kodgi, Chairman of the Third Finance Commission Report Implementation Task Force spoke at length about the work done by his team. According to him, the task force has already held several rounds of discussions, on wide ranging topics with urban local body officials and authorities in the zilla, taluk and gram panchayats.
After all these discussions now they have a clear-cut idea as to which of the departments needed funds. Accordingly the task force would give its recommendations to the State Government, so that the latter could allocate funds in the budget, which is going to be presented in the last week of February, Kodgi informed. Further he said that they would urge the Government to increase the allocation of funds for certain departments based on their interaction with the local bodies.
Kodgi also said that due to shortage of staff, the work of several gram panchayats have been hindered. As a result, one gram panchayat secretary was constrained to look after three to four gram panchayats. As of date nearly 10 posts of gram panchayat secretary were lying vacant in Udupi district. Moreover, its imperative now to also provide necessary training to gram panchayat secretaries, so that they could work efficiently, Kodgi added. According to him the cadre and recruitment rules had not been framed for recruitment to the post of gram panchayat secretary. It is also essential to appoint development officers in gram panchayats, he opined. Further even the district planning committees, headed by president of zilla panchayat, with presidents of urban local bodies as its members, should be activated, he urged.
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