Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will announce the formation of the Local Self-Government Department (LSGD) Common Service by merging five government departments on February 19, the birth anniversary of Balwantrai Mehta, the architect of the Panchayati Raj. The announcement will be made during the local self-government day celebrations planned at the Kerala Arts and Crafts Village, Vellar, Minister for Local Self-Government M.V. Govindan said here on Thursday. The State government had expedited the merger plans, a complex process involving multiple departments and around 30,000 employees, over the past four years, the Minister said.
Four wings
Aimed at streamlining service delivery and the planning process in the sector, the merger involves the departments of panchayat, rural development, urban affairs, town and country planning and LSGD engineering. The single department will have four wings — rural, urban, planning and engineering. Mr. Govindan said that the merger would end the lack of coordination that existed among employees of various local self-government institutions engaged in work connected to local development, planning, disaster management, and waste disposal. The merger would bring around 30,000 employees under the single umbrella of the LSGD Common Service.
Better cooperation
The new set-up would guarantee better cooperation among the three-tier panchayats and the municipalities and improve efficiency and speed in service delivery to the public, the Minister said. It would also permit better and wider utilisation of the services of employees attached to engineering, town and country planning and public health, he added. The unified department will have a common department director at the State level and district-level heads.
With the formation of the single department, the practice of holding separate celebrations to mark the panchayat day and municipality day will be replaced with the ‘local self-government day.’ Mr. Govindan will preside over the function on Saturday. Minister for General Education and Labour V. Sivankutty, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies G.R. Anil and Minister for Transport Antony Raju will be present on the occasion. Discussions regarding a common service were initiated in 2007, but the proposal remained on the backburner till 2016 when the Left Government revived it. Although the Cabinet gave its nod in July 2020, the merger was delayed by the outbreak of COVID-19.
