The Hindu 07.12.2010
Focus on empowering women for better governance
Special Correspondent
KANNUR: Speakers at a seminar on decentralised governance and women
empowerment, here on Monday, highlighted the importance of empowering
women elected to local bodies in the State to help them utilise
administrative powers given to them.
The two-day seminar being organised by the Institute of Parliamentary
Affairs (IPA) and the Sree Narayana College Department of Political
Science and History on the college campus here was inaugurated by Kannur
University Vice-Chancellor P.K. Michael Tharakan.
In his inaugural address, Dr. Tharakan noted the key role played by
the late Chief Minister and communist leader E.M.S. Namboodiripad in
launching decentralised governance in the State. He hoped that
decentralised democracy would be strengthened in future. In his keynote
address, State Finance Commission Chairman M.A. Oommen said that while
many States were lagging behind in fiscal decentralisation, Kerala had
taken some crucial steps in this regard. IPA Director-General G.
Gopakumar said thefunction of the institute was to disseminate awareness
of parliamentary democracy among the common people.