Karnataka Rural Development Minister Eshwar B Khandre has directed the chief executive officers of all Zilla Panchayats to visit four to five villages at least twice a week for surprise inspections and direct public grievance hearings.
The minister issued the written instruction to the department secretary in Bengaluru, asking the CEOs to visit gram panchayats without prior notice and personally review attendance, the functioning of panchayat development officers and the performance of taluk-level executive officers.
The directive also asks the officials to hear residents’ complaints and resolve at least some problems on the spot. The inspections are intended to improve supervision of rural development works and ensure that local administrative officers remain accountable at the village level.
Karnataka has more than 5,900 gram panchayats across 31 districts and 57,879 habitations, according to figures cited in the minister’s communication. The state has a total population of about 6.13 crore, of which 4.45 crore people live in 26,589 villages. The minister said the large share of the population living in rural areas required Zilla Panchayat CEOs to give greater attention to village development.
Khandre specifically referred to the need to improve access to clean drinking water, roads and sanitation in rural areas. He also called for attention to employment generation under the VBG Ram Ji programme, stating that better access to basic services and local work could help reduce migration from villages to cities and ease pressure on urban areas.
The minister asked the CEOs to regularly check whether several government schemes were being implemented effectively. These include the Jal Jeevan Mission, VBG Ram Ji, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin), the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and the Chief Minister’s road scheme.
The inspections are also expected to cover the removal of encroachments from lakes, cleanliness within gram panchayat limits and the management of wet and dry waste. The minister said regular field-level monitoring would help accelerate the implementation of development works.
The directive places responsibility for monitoring across multiple layers of rural administration, including Zilla Panchayat CEOs, panchayat development officers and taluk executive officers. It does not specify a separate implementation deadline or reporting format for the village visits. The department’s written instructions to district-level officials are expected to guide the inspections and follow-up action.
