Direct recruitment for EO, PDO posts soon

MYSORE: Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Jagadish Shettar said that the practice of deputing officers from other departments for Rural Development Programme (RDP) will be stopped.He also said that Executive Officers (EO) and Panchayat Development Officers (PDO) will be appointed through direct recruitment shortly.Speaking to media persons on Friday, before commencing the review meeting at the zilla panchayat office, he said that the process of appointing about 500 engineers for the gram panchayat has already commenced and sought approval of the Finance Department.When questioned that it is reported that several misappropriations are taking place during the recruitment process, he said that, nothing of that manner is going on and criminal cases will be booked if such incident occurs.“There is a complaint that the gram panchayat meetings are not conducted regularly and decisions taken in the GP meetings are being changed without being implementing. In order to bring accountability in the GP meetings, arrangements will be made in the future to record the proceedings of the meeting. Apart this, meetings will be conducted often to harmonise good relationship between public, GP and PDO, he stated.To the allegation that the government is entering into ZP matters, he clarified that the government is not interfering in the functioning of the ZP. He added that, the government is releasing grants directly to the GP and apart from this NRI’s are also funding about 50 lakh for GP developmental works.