Chennai: Former professor of Gandhigram Rural Institute-Deemed University G Palanithurai has been appointed as an adviser for capacity building of village panchayats at the State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD).Palanithurai will provide advice to minister N Anand on strengthening local bodies and improve the functioning of elected representatives, said Prashant M Wadnere, secretary of rural development and panchayat raj department in an order dated Aug 2. Palanithurai, regarded as an expert on panchayat raj, has been stressing the need to strengthen the local governance mechanism.Palanithurai will extend his expertise in aiding SIRD to improve its policies and delivery system to augment the village panchayats’ own revenue resources, evolve infrastructure and improve delivery of local bodies’ services to the people. He will help authorities develop sustainable plans for village panchayats, said officials.However, the govt order has no mention of his tenure, only that he would be associated with SIRD temporarily with an honorarium of ₹1 lakh a month. The expenditure towards the payment of honorarium would be met from SIRD’s training corpus fund.
