Report filed by the Additional Secretary, Local Self Government Department, Kerala in the matter of Tribunal on its own motion Suo Motu based on the report dated 26.06.2023 received from Hon’ble Justice A.V. Ramakrishna Pillai on the Present Status of Waste dump site at Cubaloor in Mangalpady Panchayat, Kasargod District, …
The stinky spectacle of hill-stations getting buried under their own garbage is turning more real. Look down the slopes and you will see mounds of coloured plastic bags, and tourist staples such as empty packets of potato chips and plastic water bottles. All of which is mixed with vegetable waste …
Evam Piljain, an 80-year-old Toda who's spent all her life in Ooty, feels distraught at the sight of her hometown. "I cannot sit in the verandah anymore,' she says. She moves to her drawing room and gazes wistfully at a photograph of Ooty taken in the early part of the …
Planning is non-existent for India's hill-stations, admit hill municipalities. In the absence of a master plan, a free-for-all situation prevails where one constructs wherever one finds free space; if there is lack of space, one can simply add another storey to one's house. There is no tourist plan, which becomes …
Incredible India. The land of mystic splendour. The hidden paradise. These are just three slogans to convince people to turn themselves into tourists and land up, every summer, in droves in hill-stations. Ooty's annual flower show attracts 0.2 million tourists over two days. In addition, it receives over 0.3 million …
the problem of parallel bodies interfering with the work of panchayats may end soon if the consensus reached at the second roundtable of state ministers on panchayati raj is followed. A resolution passed at the meet, held at Mysore on August 28-29, 2004, said bodies such as community-based organisations, forest …
the Madhya Pradesh (mp) government is drawing considerable flak over its move to change the state's panchayati raj structure. A state cabinet meeting on July 29, 2004 decided to bring about the first major changes in the Madhya Pradesh Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, and the Gram Swaraj Act, 2001. The …
The Planning Commission has recently mooted the Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana (rsvy) to ensure minimum livelihood to people in the country's most backward districts. As per the commission's latest plans, rsvy will target more than 100 districts. Most of these have been identified through the use of an index that …
A World Bank report on fiscal decentralisation to Panchayati Raj Institutions (pris) has reinforced the argument that decentralised governance in India will not work without genuine fiscal decentralisation. India: Fiscal Decentralization to Rural Governments analysed fiscal decentralisation in Kerala and Karnataka
a recent move of the Supreme Court (sc) might spell trouble for the controversial Member of Parliament Local Areas Development Scheme (mplads). On July 27, 2004, the sc referred three public interest litigations (pil) against mplads to a constitution bench. The bench would determine the constitutional validity of the scheme …
The uncertainty over fiscal empowerment of India's panchayati raj institutions (pris) continues to deepen. At a national consultative seminar, held in Kolkata on July 24-25, the Union ministry of panchayati raj affairs (mopra) decided to undertake an eight-month long nation-wide survey of the funding pattern, functions and functionaries of these …
bully power: A World Trade Organisation panel will examine the US claim that a tax imposed by Mexico on American soft drinks that use corn sweeteners violates international trade rules. Mexico's 20 per cent tax on soft drinks and syrups using high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) have almost halted the …
After the 73rd amendment to the Constitution, Panchayati Raj institutions (pris) became key agencies in the Indian state's decentralisation scheme. So far, the focus of panchayati raj has been the village as a whole. This is perhaps because the colonial state
THERE is something rotten in the debate on direct rural development funding to the districts (see: "Devolution meet a damp squib"). First, let's look at how the Union government approaches the issue. It is tired of state governments' steady refusal to decentralise real power
IT IS easy to romanticise Panchayati Raj. The notion of happy rural people managing their destinies with help from the government has the glossy appeal of advertising brochures. But when it comes to brass tacks, delivery of development programmes is very complex. Take the case of the eco-development project funded …
Newspaper reports show that from January 1, 2004 to May 16, 2004, about 29 farmers in Andhra Pradesh (AP) committed suicide. From May 17, the suicides suddenly increased: the AP Rytu Sangham, the farmers' wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has compiled reports of 279 suicides by farmers …
A women's self-help group in Punukula village approached a bank for a Rs 25,000 loan to buy an electric neem powdering unit last year, and was turned down. The group's credit history was good, say residents of this predominantly tribal village of 204 farming households in Palvoncha mandal of Khamman …
AP's plight brings into sharp focus India's agrarian crisis. The sorry state of institutional credit, consigned to the dustbin, is back on the agenda. The Union government has promised to double institutional credit available to the farm sector. In AP, institutional credit accounts for a mere 20-25 per cent of …
"The strategy for agriculture will certainly create new jobs, especially in the allied sector. However, agriculture's share of employment will actually reduce, from the current 70 per cent to 40-45 per cent.... As economies grow, the focus of economic activity shifts from primary activities to those that lead to greater …
There are several delivery systems whereby government can help farmers in AP. Some, like the agriculture extension system, institutional lending bodies and irrigation,, have a direct role to play in agriculture. Others, like the Panchayati Raj institutions, should’ve provided the template for success. None are currently of any good. Take …
