Gram panchayats demand funds from govt for Covid relief

Mysuru: Gram panchayat authorities in the state are in a fix after the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj department directed the panchayats to provide food and essential services to migrant labourers and economically weaker sections during the lockdown period. The GPs, which have limited revenue sources, are finding it difficult to manage the situation and are seeking financial support from donors.
The government which had identified 14,542 migrant workers in around 230 places in the state is providing food, camps and medical facilities to them. It has also opened 262 food camps where around food kits have been provided to 60,000 people.
RDPR principal secretary Uma Mahadevan in her order on April 24 stated that despite all the measures, there are people who are left out from the facilities and are in need of help. To identify migrant workers and economically weaker sections, directions have been given to revenue officials to conduct survey in rural areas jointly with gram panchayats.
The survey will be conducted to identify children, women, aged persons, persons with health problems and disabilities, sexual minorities, bonded labourers, nomads and migrants in the rural areas.
The direction has been issued to 6,022 gram panchayats in the state. However, the officers who work in the gram panchayats lament that providing facilities to the people will be a huge task for the rural local bodies due to limited revenue resources.
“The government’s NRDF and SRDF funds are given to deputy commissioners to be used for urban bodies. But the problem is that more migrant workers from cities are settling in rural areas. As majority of the GPs do not have financial sources, they are unable to take up relief activities without funds. We need more funds to provide facilities to poor,” said a PDO.
Another PDO said that maximum work is done by the gram panchayats. “But the problem is that we have very limited fund as tax collection and other revenue is very less. We mainly depend on the government for funds. We are not getting any funds for COVID-19 relief measures. But we have been directed to provide food and medical service and set up camps for the needy. So we are seeking financial support from donors,” the officer said.