Bengaluru: The Government of Karnataka has amended Sections 43(b), 48(4) and 48(5) of the Gram Swaraj and Panchayat Raj Act, 1993 Rules for the Removal of Members, President and Vice-President of the Gram Panchayat Rules, 2022 and demanding to abolish these rules MLAs Manjunath Bhandary S. Ravi, Dinesh Gooligowda Mandya, Rajendra Rajanna, Madhu Madegowda, and Anil Kumar met Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday August 24 and submitted a memorandum.
The draft notification, which is currently published, has defined misconduct under Section 43 (a) but there is no clarity of any kind. Rule 2 (c) contains confusion about the investigating officer and there is no clarity. In the name of misconduct, the government is trying to curtail the democratic rights of gram panchayat representatives through the authorities by entrusting the responsibility of receiving, investigating and prosecuting complaints to lower level officials. Thereby, it is going to establish a centralised system of governance against decentralisation,” said the MLAs.
Under Section 43(a) 48 (4) (5), the power to receive a complaint shall be vested only with the State Government as enshrined in the Act and the action shall be taken by the State Government on the said complaint. In their objections and suggestions submitted to the Chief Minister, the MLAs explained that a change should be made in this draft rule of the Government.
Chief Minister, who received the pleas of the MLAs, has assured to take action in this regard.
