Congress government should have acted faster in implementing State’s Panchayat Raj Act: Aiyar

The new Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act was formulated based on the recommendations of the committee headed by Congress MLA K R Ramesh Kumar during the Siddaramaiah government

Former Congress Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar on Thursday said the Congress government led by Siddaramaiah “did not act sufficiently fast” in implementing the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act, “though the Act enacted by the State is arguably the best in the country.”

The new Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act was formulated based on the recommendations of the committee headed by Congress MLA K R Ramesh Kumar during the previous Congress government.

“In my view, unfortunately, the Congress government did not act sufficiently fast for implementing the law, and naturally the non-Congress government that came in did not show the same sense of ownership of recommendations of the Ramesh Kumar Committee. With the result the law significantly remained unattended,” Mr Aiyar said.

The former Union Minister recalled the contributions of late leaders such as Abdul Nazir Sab, M Y Ghorpade to the panchayat raj, and said more than 40 lakh women were elected to panchayat raj bodies in the country, which was more than the elected women members in the world.

If the Act was implemented with political commitment, Karnataka will gain top position in the country in implementing decentralisation governance. Unlike in the north and eastern parts of the country, the panchayat raj system achieved considerable progress in the south and western parts of the country, the Congress leader said.

He also took a dig at the Narendra Modi-led government and said institutional sanctity had been subordinated in the last eight years.