THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A majority of the District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committees (DISHA) and their state-level apex body in Kerala are functioning without the Union government's nominees.
The state BJP seems to be least bothered about the lack of representation in the committees which monitor the implementation of various development projects, including 41 central schemes. The Union government's representatives in the committees, four non-official members in each forum, are to be nominated by the Union Ministry of Rural Development.
Only the Kozhikode and Kannur district committees have Central government’s nominees. Interestingly, these candidates were nominated by the MoRD on the basis of a recommendation by Congress MP K Muraleedharan.
"The district committees were formed in 2016 and the state-level committee in December 2020. The state BJP leadership is to be blamed for the non-representation as it could not submit lists of candidates to the national leadership. These forums give scope for the party to ensure proper implementation of central schemes. It is a shame for the party that its privilege was hijacked by a Congress MP," said a local BJP leader in Kannur who did not want to be named.
Senior BJP leader and party’s national executive member P K Krishnadas said the party had submitted a list of candidates to the Centre. He claimed the delay was due to the indifference of the MoRD officers. However, he could not explain how the candidates named by K Muraleedharan were nominated by the MoRD. "The MP can recommend one person. But I don’t know about the rest of the candidates," he said.
Muraleedharan told The New Indian Express that he submitted a list of candidates on the basis of a request by the MoRD. All of them were selected, he said.
Guidelines ON MORD’S nominations
Non-official members nominated by MoRD can be selected from three categories. Each committee should have a woman and a member of SC or ST categories.
Eminent person from social, academic or public fields having knowledge on socioeconomic development
Eminent representative of a civil society organisation
Eminent senior citizen
Make-up of DISHA
The DISHA chairperson should be a Lok Sabha member. Other Lok Sabha members from the district are co-chairpersons. The district collector is the member-secretary. There are about 40 members, including officers from various departments and people’s representatives.