Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Nov 16: At the cabinet meeting held on Thursday last, approval was given to the proposal to promote Malavoor and Bajpe gram panchayats into town panchayats. But for certain reasons, the efforts to bring together Kinnigoli and Mennabettu gram panchayats and treat them as town panchayats have not been successful. The MLA said that this process will be put through shortly.

In the year 2019, a proposal to merge Kinnigoli and Mennabettu panchayats and create new town panchayats had been submitted to the government through MLA, Umanath Kotian. This time, the proposal was sent along with integrated facts and figures.

For a gram panchayat to be promoted as town panchayat, the criteria like a thousand population, income of nine lac rupees to each of the panchayats etc are needed annually. It should have over 50 per cent non-agricultural income. As per the 2011 census, Kinnigoli has a population of 8,126 people and while Mennabettu has 4,372. In 2020, Kateel was requested to be added to the above two when forming the town panchayat.

Once they are converted into town panchayats, Kinnigoli and Mennabettu areas will develop and the annual grant of about two crore rupees will be received. Under round drainage, drinking water etc will become a problem of the past. Out of the three, Kinnigoli and Mennabettu panchayats have agricultural activities while Kateel has a lot of agricultural activities.

MLA Umanath Kotian said that Kinnigoli was expected to be announced as town panchayat with Bajpe and Malavoor. He stated that because of certain reasons, this announcement was not made and a favourable decision will be taken soon.