The Congress-led State Government should table the panchayati raj legislation for Uttarakhand in the next Assembly session and budgetary provisions should also be made to compensate for the cuts made by the Centre for the district and block panchayats. The State Government should raise issues of Uttarakhand effectively at the Central level. The Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee president Kishore Upadhyay has made these and other suggestions in a letter to Chief Minister Harish Rawat and State Panchayati Raj Minister Pritam Singh.
In the letter the PCC chief states that presently in Uttarakhand varied confusion and discontent is rife in the three tier Panchayats after the Central Government made a cent per cent cut in the budget for district and block Panchayats under the 14th finance commission. The present State Government has initiated measures like authorising Panchayats for electricity generation from mini hydro electric projects and solar power and provision of additional budget through border backward area grant fund for which the Congress appreciates the Government.
Upadhyay suggests that the draft of Uttarakhand’s Panchayati Raj Act should be tabled in the next budget session of the Vidhan Sabha. Regarding the budgetary cuts made by the Centre for district and block panchayats, the State should advocate strongly for these panchayats and demand additional budget. Till a positive decision is made regarding this budgetary cut by the Centre, the State Government should made necessary budgetary allocation to make up for the shortfall.