Will the local body give compensation for the bite of a stray dog? Can a Panchayat member work abroad after being elected to a local administrative body? What are the duties and responsibilities of Panchayat President? These questions seem easy to answer, but they are difficult to answer for many people, including many members of the three-tier local administrative bodies.
Panchayat Talk Series, a mass awareness YouTube channel program on the three-tier system of local government started by Junaid Kappani, a member of Wayanad District Panchayat of Vellamunda Division, focuses on answering questions from the public.
Although the Kerala Panchayati Raj Act was enacted in 1994, most members of the public are not aware of details such as the duties and responsibilities of a member of a local administrative body and the incentives provided by the gram panchayat to citizens, Mr. Kappani said. , who is also the Chairman of the Welfare Standing Committee of the District Panchayat. “I have been providing such useful information to the public, including the local body members, in each of my series lasting two to three minutes,” he said.
He said 21,900 local administrative body members are elected every five years for gram panchayats, block panchayats, municipalities and corporations, but most of them do not have a clear idea of their duties and responsibilities. “When I was elected a year back, I too had to face such issues. Later, I came to know that many elected members were facing such issues, and this prompted me to start the programme,” said Mr. Cappani.
A post-graduate in commerce and psychology, he said that he has completed a course in “Decentralization and Local Body Governance” jointly offered by KILA and Sree Narayana Guru Open University for interested local administrative body members, and that enabled him to start a web series. helped to do.
“I collected useful suggestions for the public after referring to books and court orders on issues I want to discuss in the coming days,” said Mr. Capani, launched about nine months ago. The program was close to 200 episodes. ,
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