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 Union minister for panchayati raj, Mani Shankar Aiyar, is a worried man. Even before he could select his personal staff and a place for the newly created ministry of panchayati raj affairs (mopra), questions are being raised about the efficacy of carving out this section from the Union ministry …
Panchayati raj institutions are considered to be an important organ of participatory democracy. The basic idea behind establishing these grassroots-level bodies was to decentralise power and resources from the national and state capital to villages, to ensure people could administer their socio-economic and political life as per local needs. But …
the gram panchayats of Tamil Nadu (tn) have sought the Union government's intervention in overcoming a severe resource crunch. Faced with dues to the tune of Rs 300 crore, owed to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (tneb), the presidents of these panchayats have filed a petition with the Union minister …
faced with the threat of exposure to toxic waste, the people of a few nondescript villages of Tamil Nadu (tn) exhibited remarkable unity and resolve to register their protest. They were ably supported in this endeavour by civil society representatives. It was as if a storm hit the Kancheepuram collectorate …
Last year, Congress chief minister Digvijay Singh lost the Madhya Pradesh (MP) state elections. Two years before, the Communist-led coalition lost in Kerala. Since both governments had fervently promoted decentralisation, questions naturally come to the fore: Was their defeat a vote against the move towards local governance and devolution of …
In Kerala’s Kozhikode district, there exists a village that doesn’t depend on government dole: Olavanna’s panchayat has been successfully running its own drinking water project since the 1990s. This is completely unlike the way the United Democratic Front (UDF) government functions. The Kerala Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (KRWSSA), …
In Birahrua, Morena district, Madhya Pradesh, ravines are everywhere. They have swallowed up fields and are now ravaging hutments. Habitats are turning into devilish gullies. For Babulal Kewat, one resident of this village, this means another hunt for a refuge. Babulal and his family of eight are eternally on the …
Who does the water under the ground belong to? Who has the right to exploit it? Are there limits on what can be extracted? Till three months ago, the answers to such questions were simple. Groundwater under Indian law belongs to the person who owns the land. In other words, …
The government of India has for long considered watersheds as catalysts for development activities in rain-fed areas. In 1994, it developed guidelines for implementation of watershed programmes. These were subsequently revised, in 2001, by the department of land resources of the ministry of rural development and circulated as guidelines for …
A parliamentary committee has pointed out that the process of devolution of powers to Panchayati Raj institutions (PRIs) and urban local bodies has not been completed even 10 years after the enforcement of the 73rd Constitution (Amendment) Act, 1993. The report by the committee on empowerment of women, tabled in …
One more legal battle has seen local self-governance emerge stronger in Kerala. On December 5, the Kerala High Court (hc) disposed of a drinking water production unit's petition challenging the decision of a panchayat to cancel its licence over the issue of groundwater extraction. A single bench of the hc, …
Wherever they exist India's urban elite splash on subsidies B Ashok a regime of pro-rich subsidies have ensured India's urban elites happilly benefit from organised water supply and sewage treatment services, wherever they exist. Water tariffs in India are among the lowest. Let us compare. In the us
two recent directives of the Kerala High Court (hc) have further vindicated the Perumatty Grama Panchayat's stand in its face-off with the Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited (hcbpl). On December 16, Justice Balakrishnan Nair of the hc told hcbpl to close down the borewells at its Plachimada plant in Kerala's …
Judgement of the Kerala High Court in the case of Perumatty Grama Panchayat vs State of Kerala dated 16/12/2003 (Coca-Cola groundwater exploitation case).
A MULTI-BILLION-DOLLAR transnational corporation has had to blink first in an eyeball-to-eyeball dispute with an obscure panchayat of Kerala. On November 17, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited (HCBPL)
CONTITUTIONAL issues underlie the deadlock that persists in Plachimada. More specifically, the entire debate is centred on the rights of panchayats. Not only is the Perumatty Grama Panchayat pitted against the Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited (HCBPL) and the Kerala government, it is ironically having to take on the local …
a myth actively perpetuated by traditional politicians and a supportive bureauracy is that panchayat bodies are India's lowest ranked implementing agency for government programmes. Thus their status as an institution of self-government, as designated in the Indian c onstitution, remains a distant dream. This is why, when the Plachimada panchayat …
Reportedly, bjp senior leader Arun Jaitley has contemptuously labelled Digvijay Singh's Madhya Pradesh government as " ngo -style". Why? Because it spends more on social development - education and health - and not on roads or electricity. I am not defending the potholes made famous by politicians and media in …
In Ladakh, the rest of India is referred to as down . Because, at no point in Leh district would you be less than about three kilometres above the mean sea level. This vast barren district is more than 45,000 square kilometre (sq km); it is perhaps India's largest and …
