Why do MLAs Need 'Ashraya'?

(taken from the Deccan Herald, 8/5/07)

 Karnataka State Nirmiti Kendra should be established to counter the contractor raj.

 By Manohar N Kulkarni

Ashraya Yojana in Karnataka has suddenly attracted the attention of our MLAs because they find that they can take “ashraya” under it to feed their voters and themselves. This is reflected in their sudden rush to amend section 3(3)(b) and 3(a)(c) of the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act 1993 by which if the village panchayats fails to discharge their duties in respect of housing schemes or programmes funded by the government then a committee headed by the MLA of the constituency shall select the beneficiaries from the list prepared by the gram panchayat!

In one stroke the MLA of the concerned panchayat area becomes the final arbiter over decisions of the gram sabha. It is now common knowledge that wherever there is money MLAs flock there. Among the 29 functions delegated to the village panchayats, why only Ashraya scheme is brought under the MLA’s telescope? Why not construction of village roads, culverts and even the much-acclaimed National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme?


Tailor-made

Among the most neglected schemes in rural Karnataka is the Water, Environmental Sanitation and Shelter (WESS) and all the three are interlinked to promote good health of the rural folks. Unlike the fast growing urban areas, rural hinterlands are still not under the spell of real estate sharks. There is need to make WESS a powerful force in Karnataka’s rural infrastructure programme and MLAs are incapable of spearheading this work simply because it is rural engineering, technology and construction for which the rural local bodies are best suited to do the job and not the MLAs.

Kerala today boasts of what is called Kerala State Nirmiti Kendra (KESNIK) to take up a wide range of activities for the promotion of Cost Effective and Environmental Friendly technologies (CEEF) like manufacturing and sale of CEEF materials, training of village masons, artisans and semiskilled village brick makers and orientation of panchayat raj leaders and functionaries.

Over a period of less than five years, more than 100 houses were built in the panchayats using CEEF technologies and the private entrepreneurs have continued to do brisk business. The panchayat committee with the help of village self-help groups (Kudumshree) identified 138 families as being needy. Then they were linked up with banks for getting finance to build houses and the panchayats were continuously monitoring the construction.
 

Commendable job

Karnataka is back to the MLA and bureaucratic raj from panchayati raj. Why we cannot float Panchayat Raj Housing Board and bring the entire rural infrastructure programme under its wing and assist village panchayats? Why do we need Karnataka Land Army Corporation — a relic of the contractor raj to build rural roads and houses bypassing the panchayats? If 121 gram panchayats in Karnataka can get Nirmal Gram Awards this year, how come MLAs decide to take away the panchayat’s right to look after their communities through Ashraya programme?

Karnataka panchayats got nearly Rs 3.70 crore as prize money for the Nirmal Gram programme. Ashraya programme has to be linked with Nirmal Gram programme to get synergy for the good health of the villagers. Today unfortunately all the 29 functions given to the village panchayats have been divided among 29 departments of the government and no one knows who is implementing which programme at the village level and the panchayat members are blamed at the end of the day when things go wrong.

Rural infrastructure includes just not roads, culverts but also affordable housing with protected WESS. We need Karnataka State Nirmiti Kendra on the lines of KESNIK. Our village artisans like masons, brick and kiln makers, carpenters, stone cutters have enormous talent in construction industry. They have all migrated to the urban slums for their livelihood. There is need for reverse migration of such artisans to build a Suvarna Karnataka in the villages. Let the Karnataka State Nirmiti Kendra be set up to help the gram panchayats in rural construction boom in the coming decades.