Finance minister announces 12-point plan for LSG bodies

Kozhikode: Finance minister T M Thomas Isaac has announced a 12-point plan for local self-government institutions in the state to enable them to make good use of the Rs 21,000-crore allotment made for local bodies in the state budget.
Inaugurating the state-level Panchayat Day celebrations at the Vythiri Village resort in Wayanad on Tuesday, the minister said though the state has been going through acute financial crisis, 35% of total budget outlay has been earmarked for local bodies in the silver jubilee of decentralization of powers in the state.
“The 12-point scheme includes the hunger-free initiative of providing meals for Rs 25 in the 1,000 food outlets to be set up by the Kudumbashree in the state before Onam,” said the minister.
Isaac said 5,000 Elderly Clubs will be set up in all local self-government bodies. Panchayats will have three such clubs each. He said that 500 grama panchayats and 50 cities will be made to achieve Suchitwa status before Onam. As many as 12,000 public toilets in the form of take-a-break resting centres will be set up.
He said that government is ready to give a Rs 5-crore special development fund to those panchayats that offer space and people’s consent to build the septage treatment plants.
The minister also said waterways of the state will be revived and as an immediate plan 20,000km stretch of these waterways will be cleaned with the help of the respective local body institutions by June.
The planting of one crore trees as cash crops in the state each year is the other project which will be implemented through LSG bodies. Isaac also presented Jeevani, the project to have organic vegetable cultivation in 20,000 hectares, among other points.