Bengaluru, 7 September

Minister Eshwar Khandre on Monday made inspections mandatory for district panchayat chief executive officers, directing them to make surprise visits to four to five villages twice a week.

In a written instruction to the department secretary, Khandre said the CEOs should visit gram panchayats without prior notice, check attendance, assess the functioning of panchayat development officers and taluk executive officers, hear people's grievances and address some of them on the spot.

"The panchayat CEOs should visit 4-5 villages at least two days a week and personally inspect the situation," he said, stressing the need for closer monitoring of rural development works.

Khandre said Karnataka has more than 5,900 gram panchayats and 57,879 habitations across 31 districts, with 4.45 crore of the state's 6.13 crore population living in 26,589 villages.

"Nearly three-fourths of the state's population lives in rural areas," the rural development and panchayat raj minister said, adding that district panchayat CEOs should therefore accord greater attention to rural development.

Ensuring clean drinking water, better roads, sanitation and local employment under VB-G RAM-G would help curb migration from villages to cities, ease pressure on urban areas and accelerate rural development, he said.

The minister directed the CEOs to regularly monitor the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission, VB-G RAM-G, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Rural), Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and the Chief Minister's Road Scheme.