Zilla Parishads function sans Standing Committees

Hyderabad: Standing Committee in Zilla Parishads have not yet been constituted though a fortnight passed since the election of chairpersons. Usually, Zilla Parishads (ZPs) used to elect Standing committees soon after their formation.

Confusion has arisen over the constitution of the Standing Committee because the ZPs have fewer number of Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency members.

Each ZP is required to constitute seven Standing Committees to examine various aspects and adopt resolutions. The ZP general body will discuss the resolution passed by the Standing Committee and take a decision.

Standing Committees will be constituted on education, agriculture, health, rural development, women, social welfare and planning. Each committee used to comprise six to seven members in the past. The chairperson of ZP will head some of the committees.

These committees will consist of ZPTC members, MLAs, MLCs and MPs as members. Between seven and eight ZPTC members used to be appointed as members on each committee. However, now most of the ZPs do not have required number of ZPTCs.

After the formation of 32 ZPs in the State the average number of ZPTCs in each ZP has come down to 16 from the previous average of 60. In the past with large number of ZPTCs, there was not difficulty in electing the Standing Committees in the past.

With the delimitation of the ZPs, the number of ZPTCs in them has come down making it difficult to elect the Standing Committees. Some ZPs like Medchal have just five ZPTCs.

The Warangal Urban district has seven and the Mulugu district has eight members. The number of MLAs, MLCs and MPs is also low per each district. Each district has three to four MLAs and one or two MLCs. One MP is representing two districts.

As the average ZPTCs number is less than 31, it would be difficult even to allocate the ZPTCs without election. If the ZPTCs have to be allocated at the rate of six to seven for each committee, the number of ZPTCs required would be 42.

The officials of the Panchayat Raj said that the government has to take a decision on the constitution of the Standing Committees and guide the ZPs in this regard. The government has to reduce the number of Standing Committees or replace the system with other one.