Centre asks Orissa to take approval of village committees for various projects before commencement

Orissadiary.com, June 2, 2010
Report by Dipti Ranjan Kanungo; Bhubaneswar: Concerned over non implementation of the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act (PESA) guidelines, the Union Government joint Secretary on Wednesday asked the State Government to take approval of the village committees for various projects before commencement.


The Panchayati RaJ Ministry Joint Secretary Rasmi Sukla Sharma placed this directive in a review meeting held under the Chairmanship of Panchayat Raj Minister Prafulla Samal in the Orissa Secretariat Wednesday.

After the meeting Panchayati Raj Minister Sri Samal told the mediapersons here that due to some lacunae in PESA guidelines shortage of staffs, difficulties are being marked while different programmes are being implemented under different departments in tribal areas. Giving an example he said while a liquor shop is proposed to be opened in an area, an employee of the Excise Department should remain present and make people of Village Committee understand about the rules regarding opening of such shops. Similarly, when a mining activity is undertaken covering eight or 10 panchayats, the Government takes the approval of Jilla Parishad before work begins. "In such cases the Central Joint Secretary has told us to take consent of individual Panchayats," That guidelines would not work unless sufficient funds and functionaries are supplied.

Joint Secretary stated to have understood that the State Government is keenly interested to activate PESA guidelines in tribal dominated regions. In order to train elected members of Panchayati Raj Institutions about the guidelines of PESA, there should be State level workshop soon .

Expressing about the objective of the PESA, the Minister told the Act was formulated to give the fruits of PRIs to the areas dominated with tribal people. According to the PESA Act, the Chairpersons of PRIs must be belonging to ST category. Now PESA Act is being fully activated in eight districts-Koraput, Rayagada, Nabarangpur, Malkanagiri, Mayurbhanj, Sundargada, Gajapati and Kandhamal. Besides, it is partially followed in five districts of Keonjhar, Balasore, Sambalpur, Kalahandi and Ganjam.