The Hindu 03.04.2013
Government to re-classify 529 town panchayats
It will be done on the basis of fresh income criteria.
The government has decided to re-classify 529 town panchayats on the basis of fresh income criteria of the local bodies.
Announcing
this in the Assembly on Tuesday at the end of the debate on the demands
for grants of his departments, Municipal Administration and Rural
Development Minister K.P. Munusamy said for town panchayats to be
brought under special grade, their annual income should exceed Rs. 200
lakh; for selection grade, it should be in the range of Rs. 100 lakh to
Rs. 200 lakh; for Grade I, the income should be in the range of Rs. 50
lakh to Rs. 100 lakh and for Grade II, the income should be less than
Rs. 50 lakh.
[A senior government official explains
that the reclassification would benefit people in the form of better
level of supervision of the functioning of the local bodies and
deployment of greater human resources to serve].
The
need for the new classification arose as the existing classification was
as per the income of the local bodies in 1993. Under the present norms,
town panchayats with the annual income of over Rs. 20 lakh were called
special grade; those in the range of Rs. 16 lakh to Rs. 20 lakh –
selection grade; Rs. 8 lakh to Rs. 16 lakh – Grade I and Rs. 4 lakh to
Rs. 8 lakh – Grade II. The break up of the town panchayats under the
present norms was: special grade – 12 town panchayats; selection grade –
222; grade I – 215 and grade II – 80.
Service level
Pointing
out that Chief Minister Jayalalithaa ordered the coverage of 6,000
rural habitations initially under the revised norm of 55 litres per
capita per day (LPCD), the Minister said the coverage would be achieved
through individual power pump schemes and combined water supply schemes
at a cost of Rs. 1,190.72 crore, drawing the assistance from the Minimum
Needs Programme/National Rural National Rural Drinking Water Programme.
[At
present, the service level is 40 LPCD. Of 94,614 rural habitations in
the State, around 91,000 habitations are fully covered with the rest
partially covered, according to an official in the Tamil Nadu Water
Supply and Drainage Board]. Proposals for eight combined water supply
schemes, aimed at benefiting 10.66 lakh people in 3,005 rural
habitations, 14 town panchayats and one municipality (Padamanabhapuram
of Kanyakumari district) in the districts of Cuddalore, The Nilgiris,
Erode, Tirupur, Theni and Sivaganga, would be taken up for survey this
year.
A sum of Rs. 22 crore would be set apart for
setting up 80 dog shelters and to purchase 60 vehicles to capture dogs.
This was meant for municipalities and municipal corporations excluding
Chennai. A new building would be constructed for Commissionerate of
Municipal Administration and Directorate of Town Panachayats , the
Minister added.