PRIs in a for a bad time

Panchayat institutions in Karnataka are in for bad time in Karnataka.
HUBLI, March 27, 2006
Fears about the future of the panchayat raj institutions (PRIs) in Karnataka, which were poised to open a new chapter of the financial and functional autonomy, are come true much earlier than expected under the new Karnataka Development Front regime.
The fears had been prompted by the fact that both the alliance partners of the new combination which is in office in Karnataka are alien to the concept of the empowerment of the PRIs. For the BJP, which is a dominant partner by number, it is known that the party has scant respect for the system and that the inclusion of the profession of commitment to the concept in its manifesto was only an eye wash. And the junior partner, the breakaway group of the JDS has absolutely no hang of the same, since it is ideologically barren as the things stand today
There was a flickering hope that the BJP, could do something and carry forward the programmes, which had been launched by the predecessor government, because the BJP had made a reference to the system in its manifesto. But the hopes were belied with the new Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Mr. C M Dais, making observations which are contrary to the spirit of the changes made and philosophy followed.
He made it clear on the floor of the assembly that the legislators would continue to head the task force to oversee the implementation of the rural water schemes. This comes as a total variance to the changes made through the amendment to the Karnataka Panchayat Act , under which the gram panchayats get the exclusive jurisdiction over the implementation of the rural water scheme.
The then Minister for Panchayat Raj under the Dharam Singh government refused to oblige the members when a similar demand was then made by saying that he would not like to go against the law passed. “You change the law and we can implement the new proposal”. This was the firm stand he took and he stood the ground despite the mounting pressure on him including by the then Chief Minister too.
However as a sop to the agitated legislators, the government condescended to constitute the task force under the legislators only to supervise “emergency” schemes for a period of three months till the summer season was over. Dr Mahadevappa by that time had been dropped from the Ministry as a fall out of the spat between Devegowda and Siddaramaiah. Had Mahadevappa continued he would have certainly put his foot down firmly.
But what could not be done then, has now been done by the present regime. Mr. Udasi is not stopping at that. He knows that the law as has been amended does not permit it. He has been toying with the idea of amending the law to restore the primacy of the legislators in the implementation of the rural development schemes.
This is likely to be done after the current assembly session, according to the information available. At the moment, there is discussion within the government as to whether the reamendment of the law would pass muster, in view of the 73rd and 74th Constitutional amendments made which have endowed powers to the rural and urban local self government system. But the thinking has been that Mr. Udashi will have his way, despite the legal battle the government may have to certainly fight in the coming days. And the passage will be smoother than expected not only because of the game of numbers which favour the ruling combination but because the Congress members are not averse to changes their own government had brought.
It may be mentioned here that the Karnataka Panchayatraj Act was amended ten years after it was enacted during year 2003 by the Krishna government, which however dragged its own feet to give effect to the same. And it was done by the Dharam Singh government when the Assurance Committee of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly headed by Mr. D R Patil, took up the issue of the government redeeming its promise. As a result a government order was made in August 2004 and around 170 schemes were transferred from the state sector to the district sector to enable the PRIs to implement the same. This arrangement was formalised through the budget allocation made by Mr. Siddaramaiah in his budget estimates for the year 2005-2006 and the same has been continued in the budget for the present financial year presented by Mr. B S Yediyurappa.
The path of the democratic decentralization in Karnataka has been riddled with obstacles of sorts since the beginning. The concept of the transfer of powers to the PRIs has not been kindly taken by legislators, who fell that they are marginalisd and also by bureaucracy, which has never liked the concept accountability that the system envisages and primacy of the panchayat leaders in the governanance. What is now envisaged is the latest of the obstacles. The machinations of the political masters can only be frustrated by the vigilant public opinion and alert press. But Karnataka is not known to be strong in these two areas too.
The PRIs may ultimately gain in a prolonged fight but the time lost in the process would be precious, which can’t be undone.
(ends) 19:14 hrs. March 27, 2006
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Northern Karnataka let down again

Northern Karnataka let down again
The nascent KDF government led by Mr. Kumaraswamy, has proved to be in no way different from its predecessor as for as giving a just deal to the Northern Karnataka.
The budget presented by the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr. Yediyurappa has again byepassed the Northern Karnataka in the same manner in which the Congress led governments had done in the past. This is despite the initial hopes raised by the protestations of commitment to the cause of the Northern Karnataka by none other than the two top duos, the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister. What is more galling has been that the BJP, which received the biggest ever political patronage from the region, has been instrumental in riding roughshod over the aspirations of the people of the Northern Karnataka for legitimate share in the developmental pie in Karnataka.. The crucial issue as for as the Northern Karnataka is concerned has been the implementation of the Nanjundappa Committee on Removal of Regional Imbalances. The Committee, which had been appointed during the early period of the Congress regime of Mr. Krishna (1999-2004), had suggested an additional investment of Rs. 15,000 crores over a seven year period to bridge the gap in the development and provide a level playing field for all the regions in the state. It had made a detailed taluka wise study of the sectors of backwardness which needed to be filled and had categorise the taluks into the developed, backwards and most backward taluks. But unfortunately, its pan Karnataka image was lost in the controversy and the Nanjundappa Committee report came to be dubbed as a report of the Northern Karnataka development. It was true that the Northern Karnataka would have been the greatest of the beneficiaries of the implementation of the report, which had as its focus the entire state and not any particular region.
Though the Committee had been specifically constituted to look into the grievances of Northern Karnataka, Dr Nanjundappa, chose to extend the scope to the entire state, brought all the taluks under the purview of the study and presented a comprehensive blue print for the development. What all was required for the state government was to provide for the additional investment and take up the implementation straightaway.
Krishna government which was initially enthusiastic about the ending the grievance of the region, suddenly turned cold feet. It coincided with the downfall of Mr. H K Patil, the then Karnataka Minister for Water Resources, one of the strong votaries of the Nanjundappa Committee report in the Krishna durbar.
It appeared that the antipathy to the report was not confined to the political leadership but also extended to the administrative spheres and the top echelons of bureaucracy, who never liked Dr Nanjundappa consistently refused to take cognizance of the report. This continued when a person from Northern Karnataka, Mr. B S Patil, became the Chief Secretary of the state for sometime. It was doubtful whether anybody in the government had seriously read the report.
Mr. Nanjundappa desired that the legislators should lobby for the implementation of the report. But it never materialized. No legislators from the Northern Karnataka had chosen to study the report and talk about it. The apathy was all pervasive.
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Krishna would talk in enigma and riddles whenever questioned by the newsmen about the implementation of the Nanjundappa Committee report successfully managed to shelve the report
Then came the Dharam Singh government after 2004 elections. Mr. Dharam Singh also toed the line of ambivalence of his predecessor. Every time the question was raised he would say that the State had approached the Centre for assistance and it would be taken up the moment the Central assistance was made available. Now it has been the turn of the new government to prevaricate on the issue.
The State Governments have been only tinkering with the report when ever pushed to be wall to demonstrate their phony concern and commitment to the report. It would take one or two isolated issues for implementation and skirt the main issue of providing allocation to bridge the gap in the development.
The interesting aspect is that all the political parties, as a rule, have been shying away from the question of giving a new deal to the Northern Karnataka. May be lack of assertiveness on the part of the people of the region, has led to the complacent attitude. Another contributing factor has been the absence of the political leadership in the region. There was one leader of promise in the personality of Mr. H K Patil,. But his action in breaking the solidarity with the fellow regional leaders like Mr. Kharge and Mr. Dharam Singh on the eve of the 1999 election and support the candidature of Mr. Krishna for the post of the presidentship of the PCC and as the Chief Minister after 1999 election, has proved to be politically disastrous. After taking advantage, Mr. Krishna slowly clipped the wings of Mr. Patil, openly snubbed him by dropping his supporters, and unceremoniously taking away his portfolio of water resources. It has been difficult for Mr Patil to pick up the thread again.
(ends) 23:36 hrs,. March 22, 2006
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Hardly any cheer

Hardly cheerful
There is hardly anything to cheer as for as Karnataka is concerned in the railway budget for the year 2006-07, except for the fact that the Samparka Kranti Express connecting national capital with the state capital of Bangalore would run via Arasikere –Hubli- Belgaum and a slight increase in the allocation for the ongoing railway projects in the state. The new trains which are to be introduced from Bangalore serve other states more than Karnataka.
For a long time, there had been demand that the Samparka Kranti Express between Bangalore and Newdelhi hardly served Karnataka in its existing route, which was via Guntakal and Secunderabad. And the change of route would mean that it would through the Karnataka area right from Bangalore upto Belgaum and Miraj before entering Maharashtra for its onward journey.
While it is true that the downward trend in the investment in the ongoing railway projects in Karnataka, which had been noticed for the past couple of years, none of them are anywhere near reaching the immediate goal to give the state the satisfaction of having got something tangible after a long wait.
The Railways have provided a little more than Rs. 200 crores in the budget for the nearly two dozen ongoing projects in Karnataka, the outlay for which stands now at around Rs. 5000 crores, and the state needs still Rs. 4100 crores for the completion of the projects without the cost escalation. If the present trend of investment is to be continued for the years to follow, the Karnataka will have to wait for 20 years for the completion of the project, provided there is no upward revision of the costs. The situation as for as the four projects taken up as a part of the cost sharing experiment with the state government, is in no way different, with the South Western Railway officials claiming that the failure on the part of the state government to meet its part of the bargain, has impeded the progress. The State Government has not exactly helped to clarify the matters, since its plans for the participation in the projects, gets hardly reflected in the budget, thus leading to speculation as to whether the State Government is really interested in accelerating the pace of the development of the projects at all.
It may be incidentally mentioned here that Karnataka had always nursed a feeling of neglect at the hands of the railways for want of a focused approach towards the holistic development of the state, mainly because the state came under the administrative jurisdiction of at least four zonal railways. It was from this point of view that the formation of the South Western Railway with headquarters at Hubli had evoked lot of expectations in the minds of the people about the pace of the railway projects being expedited. But the South Western Railway, as has now been formed still excludes at least one fourth of the Karnataka areas, namely the North Eastern portion comprising of the four districts of Bidar, Gulbarga, Raichur and Koppal from the purview, with the area being tagged on to the South Central Railway, while some small portions still continuing to be under the jurisdiction of Central Railway and Southern Railway in Gulbarga and Dakshina Kannada districts.
Karnataka has at the moment, around two dozen ongoing railway projects envisaging a total investment of Rs. 4953 crores. These include seven new line projects namely, Kottur-Harihar (65 kms), Kadur Chikmagalur ; Hassan Bangalore via Shravanabelagola (166 kms); Hubli Ankola (165 kms); Bangalore-Satyamangalam (260 km); Dharmavaram Penukonda Puttaparthi (60km) all coming under the South Western Railway and Gulbarga Bidar (140 kms); Munirabad Mehboobnagar ( 246 km); and Raichur Gadwal ( 67 kms); seven gauge conversion works – namely Bangalore Hubli-Shimoga-Talaguppa; (630km), Arsikere Hassan Mangalore (236 kms), Solapur-Gadag (300 km), Mysore Hassan (118 kms) , Yeswhantpur Salem (197 kms), Mysore Chamarajanagar with Extension upto Mettupalyam (148 kms), Yelahanka Chikballapur Kolar Bangarpet all under South Western Railway . Besides, there are six projects pertaining to the doubling of the lines namely Whitefield Bangarpet Kuppam (81 kms), Bangalore-Kengeri, Kengeri Ramanagaram, Yeswantpur-Tumkur (64 km), Bangalore Whitefield-KRPuram all under South Western Railway and the Reninguta Bellary under the South Central Railway.
Karnataka got the real breakthrough as for as railway development projects were concerned, during the days of Mr. Jaffer Sharief as the Union Minister for Railways in the first half of the nineties and it was during this phase that major strides were taken to bring the state in the broadgauge map of the country, as a part of the unigauge plan drawn up by the Railways then. Substantial work of broadgauging of the line linking Miraj with Bangalore via Hubli, Guntakal with Bangalore on one side and Hubli on the other, Bangalore-My sore were taken up for gauge conversion programme and a new railway line providing an alternative link between Bellary to Bangalore via Chitradurga were laid and the Hassan Mangalore line became a reality. But after the exit of Mr. Sharief, there has been a substantial slowdown of the gauge conversion and the new line programmes. Almost all the projects initiated during the period, have been practically languishing for want of sufficient allocation and attention. Added to this have been the projects sanctioned and included in the railway budget during the days of the United Front Government headed by Mr. H D Devegowda.
Kottur Harihar new line, which would provide an alternate cost effective interior route for the movement of goods and passenger traffic, is small projects looking to the investment and the line length. But it had had long gestation period and it was listed under the projects recommended for being frozen, before being put on track.
Hubli Ankola new line project has been a project designed to meet the aspirations of the people of the state, who have been dreaming about it for over century designed to provide a port connection to the hinterland of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh. It has been caught in a quagmire of environmental project and has been hardly making any progress.
The Munirabad Mehboobnagar, Gulbarga Bidar , the Raichur Gadwal, have hardly made any progress. The only new line project, which has been able to make substantial progress has been the Hassan Bangalore via Shravanabelagola, which has been completed upto Shravanabelagola with more than half of the outlay having been spent.
The 300 km Solapur Gadag broadgauge conversion via Bijapur and Bagalkot has remained a classical case of neglect. The project had been essentially designed to end the metergauge island and provide another north south corridor for the movement of the goods traffic via Solapur Bijapur and Gadag. Thanks to public uproar and the agitation, the railways completed the first 100 km stretch upto Bijapur and the progress in the latter 200 km stretch has been inexorably slow. It has been a typical case of missed deadlines with promise of the early completion going awry. There has been nono word as yet as to whether the link upto Bagalkot would be provided this year and when exactly Bagalkot Gadag would be covered. The only project to show some progress has been the Arsikere Hassan Mangalore.
The state has a cost sharing arrangement as for as four projects are concerned namely, , namely the Kottur Harihar newline, the Arsikere Hassan Mangalore and Solapur Gadag broadgauge conversions, and the two doubling of the line projects. And the extent of participation varies from project to project. This has hardly achieved the objective of increasing the pace because of the uncertainty over the flow of funds from the state government, as is openly quoted openly by the South Western Railway authorities
(ends) 04:30:47 hrs. March 8, 2006