(Inputs TOI)

Mysore: The committee set up to redraw boundary of the gram panchayats in Karnataka started its drive from Mysore district on Monday May 26.

The panel headed by S G Nanjaiahmath discussed with the Mysore Zilla Panchayat officials led by CEO P A Gopal and said it has set July end deadline for the stakeholders to submit their petitions. The panel later visited Chamarajnagar. It will continue its tour of Mandya and Ramnagaram on May 20 and will tour Bangalore Rural district on Wednesday. The panel is planning to submit its report by September 15, Nanjaiahmath told reporters.

The panel expects one thousand new gram panchayats in the state at the end of the exercise.

The panel is asked to look into the issues of boundaries of the gram panchayats and its population composition. The present GP boundaries are decided based on 1991 census data. The government is now planning to redraw the boundaries as per the 2011 census data. The government is empowered to do so under the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act, 1993.

Villages which account for 5,000 to 7,000 population can have a gram panchayat in the state. However, Belgaum, Chikmaglore, Dakshina Kannada, Dharwad, Hassan, Kodagu, Udupi, Haveri and Uttara Kannada districts are exempted from this norm. In these districts, each gram panchayat can have 2,500 population. As of now, there are 5,629 gram panchayats in the state with 1,36,884 members. Of them 41,577 are women.

Nanjaiahmath said villagers can file petition to the panel before July end which will be studied and factored in when the final report will be prepared. If the existing gram panchayats have over 7,000 population, the villagers can submit the petition and the panel will recommend new gram panchayats.