THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Protest is mounting against the trifurcation of the Local Self-Government Department (LSGD) even as Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Wednesday hastily announced a Cabinet subcommittee to coordinate the fragmented Departments.
George Mathew, chairman, Institute of Social Sciences, and memberexpert, Association of Local Governance of India, has written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi calling the UDF decision a 'retrograde step' and urging her to do the needful to restore the LSGD to its former, unified, state. "While all other states are following the pre73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment pattern with three or four Departments, Kerala had become a role model for other states aspiring to move forward, as Rajiv Gandhi stated in the Parliament on October 13, 1989, that the 64th Constitution Amendment Bill was for giving power to the hands of the people, to end the reign of the powerbrokers and giving representative administration involving the people's participation in planning and implementation in development and social justice. It is shocking that the newly elected Congressled UDF Government in Kerala has taken the decision for tripartite bifurcation of the Department of Local SelfGovernment into three,'' George Mathew said in his letter."The LSGD in Kerala stood as an exception and as an example of how local selfgovernance could be carried out in a holistic manner, he said.
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