Kaul opens panchayat samiti building

Tribune News Service

Mandi, March 19

Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur inaugurated the panchayat samiti building constructed at a cost of Rs 18 lakh at Padhar in Mandi today.

Addressing a gathering, he said the government was trying to strengthen Panchayati Raj Institutions and took several initiatives in this direction. “With the completion of this building, now the Drang Panchayat Samiti has got its office and auditorium facility, adding that the rest house is being constructed on the second floor of the panchayat samiti building at a cost of Rs 35 lakh, which will be completed till May this year” he added. He called upon members of the panchayat samiti and said the development of the area should be done without any differences on party basis. He instructed officers to be present at meetings of the panchayat samiti to sort out the problems.

The minister stated that the provision was made to spend Rs 5 lakh each for samiti members and Rs 25 lakh for zila parishad members, but in the 14th financial year, the samiti and parishad members had been deprived of this fund. The amount of Rs 10-15 lakh was being released directly to village panchayats.

“However, this matter has been raised by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh with the Centre that the funds of the members should be restored, but no provision has been made, adding that only about Rs 42 crore have been made for the members by the state government at its own level,” he remarked.

He said eight development blocks had been declared backward areas by the state government, in which the Drang block had been included.