Govt. plans Panchayat Raj Bhavan at Jakkur; to ask Gram Panchayats and RDPR employees to contribute

Bengaluru: A decision by Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) Department to ask its employees to donate their one month’s salary to construct a Panchayat Raj Bhavan at Jakkur in Bengaluru has created a new controversy. As per the decision, each Gram Panchayat will have to contribute Rs. 50,000 each for the Rs. 47.45 crore.

At a meeting of senior officers held in Bengaluru on May 23, N. Nagalambika Devi, Principal Secretary to the RDPR Department, it was revealed that the State Government was planning to construct the 11-storeyed Panchayat Raj Bhavan in Jakkur at an estimated cost of Rs. 47.45 crore. CM Siddharamaiah has allotted only Rs. 5 crore in the 2017-18 Budget for the Bhavan. A note by Nagalambika on the meeting proceedings says as the Central Govt. did not give enough grants, the State Govt. will go ahead, mobilising its own resources. And for this, the meeting decided to collect one month’s salary of the RDPR Department staff for the building.

It was also decided to collect Rs. 50,000 from each of the 6,027 GPs in the State. GPs with a revenue of Rs. 10 lakh and above will have to pay Rs. 50,000 in one go while others can pay in two or three instalments.

“If we collect Rs. 50,000 from all 6,027 GPs, we can mobilise Rs. 30.13 crore. We were also told to use the unutilised Rs. 3.09 crore allocated under the Backward Regions Grant to Abdul Nazeer Saab State Institute for Rural Development,’’ official sources said.

The issue has not been taken lightly by the RDPR Department employees who have said that the Government move asking them to contribute their one month’s salary was illogical. “If the Congress Government can spend crores of rupees to publicise its ‘4-year achievements’ it can as well spend Rs. 47.45 crore for the Panchayat Raj Bhavan,” said a Department employee.

Opposition Leader Jagadish Shettar has slammed the move saying many GPs themselves are short of funds. “How can the Government ask for donations from them? Why funds from the CM’s special grants can’t be utilised,” he asked.