'Political leanings should not hamper development'

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, AUG. 13. Political affiliations should not be a hindrance in development issues, the Food and Culture Minister, Mr. G. Karthikeyan, has said.

Inaugurating a workshop held for the district, block and grama panchayat presidents to discuss the draft Plan proposals of the district panchayat here today, Mr. Karthikeyan said that since the rival fronts had alternately come to power, development should not be affected by politics. ``Development is the prerogative of the public and not someone's charity. Such workshops should discuss how development works reflect in public life,'' he said.

Like Wayanad and Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram too had a considerable tribal population and hence tribals should be given due representation in development projects. The interest of the huge sums spent by the Central and State Governments for tribal welfare alone would have ensured the betterment of their lot, he said.

``Genuine political activists are soon becoming an endangered lot among tribals. Personal interests should not be given priority in taking up the projects of local bodies,'' he said.

Releasing the draft proposals, the Planning Board member, Mr. C.P. John, said that the approach adopted in the preparation and implementation of the Ninth Plan projects would be irrelevant in the Tenth Plan.

``There is already a strong campaign that the Tenth Plan will be different. But what the difference will be is still very vague. The Government, anyway, is becoming weak in project implementation. The public desire is to have a strong leadership by the Government in the implementation of projects,'' Mr. John said.

Instead of private participation, public participation should be ensured in project implementation. This was vital to retain the civic bodies as local self-governments, he said. Unless public participation was ensured in the development process, it would be difficult to face the challenges in future, Mr. John added.

The district panchayat president, Ms. Sasikala Sivasankar, said in her presidential address that priority had been given to the service sector as in the previous years. A sum of Rs. 613.19 lakhs had been set apart for the service sector. The other major allocations were Rs. 499.91 lakhs for the productive sector and Rs. 325.9 lakhs for infrastructure development. The panchayat vice-president, Ms. Sreeja, chairmen of various standing committees, and district implementation officers attended the workshop.

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