Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (HB)

Udupi, Jan 29: The absence of divisional forest officer (DFO) Kamala in the Udupi zilla panchayat (ZP) general body meeting irked the members. The meeting was held at V S Acharya auditorium, Rajathadri in Manipal on Tuesday, January 28.

MLA Raghupathi Bhat expressed his anger over poor response from the Forest department. “The Forest Department is not allowing any developmental work in the district. The Forest department is not issuing permit to cut trees or even remove tree branches. The eco-sensitive zones are called as wild life areas. More than 14 quarries have been closed. These unscientific norms of the department has come as a blow to the development work.”

ZP members complained that the new DFO did not come to any of the meetings since she took charge. Members are not getting any response for their problems, they alleged.

MLA Raghupathi Bhat said, “If an officer shows such ignorance then the concerned authority should take strict action. We will file a complaint to the state secretary regarding this,” he said.

“We are waiting to get approval from forest department since many months for taking up road widening work. Trees need to be cut in order to continue Brahmavar-Kunjal road construction work. We have paid charges and but there is no use. Money is not an issue now for the construction of roads. Partial and complete deemed forest norms are creating many problems. It is interfering in every place. This should be addressed by the concerned department,” he demanded.

Education and Health Standing Committee president Prathap Hegde Marali pointed out, “Deemed and reserved forest norms putting poor rural people into trouble. If the same ignorance continues, there is no doubt that those people will start naxal activities to get their rights back.”

ZP member Janardan Thonse raised the issue of server problem at fair price shops. “People have been queuing up in front of the food and civil supplies shop. It has affected ration card distribution centres delaying the process of registering and issuing cards. People are suffering due to biometric system every day.”

The food and civil supplies officer said that the server problem is there since one month. It is a Central government system. The problem is appearing because 10 to 20 various departmental officials login at the time. Thus the server gets crashed. The government has ordered to do manual entries during distribution of ration items. Though, there is problem in server, we have distributed 69% of ration cards.

The official of Food and supplies said, “We get only 4 hour server connectivity to work on received applications. In that time, we could clear very less number of ration cards. The old ration cards are pending correction, hence it is difficult to issue new cards.”

CEO Preethi Gehlot given a clarification that the same issue is happening state-wide. "We cannot do not anything at this level. We can follow up the case. We will bring it into the notice of the government."

ZP member Jyothi Harish complained about the management of Varanga, which is one of the tourist places. “Around 1800 acres land belongs to Jain math and the road is not in a good condition. The management is not allowing the repair of roads. The Revenue department is objecting any new work. There is a need to provide basic infrastructure facilities to Varanga village. No developmental work is taking place, though having enough funds.”

Thonse raised another issue that, “Sandhya Surakha, Yashaswini and widow pension scheme has completely stopped in the State. The beneficiaries of this scheme are distressed. The poor server problem is the cause for this issue. Online data entries are the main reason. This should be improved.”

Shilpa G Suvarna, ZP member said, “There is no original document available to plotting of sites at Kaup. Hence, the residents are not getting RTC. The files got misplaced. She asked for the solution with ZP CEO.”

Dinakar Babu, president of zilla panchayat, Shobha G Puthran, president, Social Standing Committee, Sumith Shetty, president, agriculture and industrial standing committee, and Srinivas Rao, chief project officer, were present.