CM asked to deposit Rs. 20 lakh in village panchayat accounts

By Our Special Correspondent

Akhil Bharat Panchayat Parishad appealed to the Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to deposit Rs.20 lakh intended to be allocated to Gram Secretariats in the accounts of Gram Panchayats. In this regard, a petition was handed over to the CM on Wednesday.

It is known that on July 18, while addressing the MLAs of the YSR Congress Party, the CM promised to undertake development work at the rate of Rs.20 lakh for each village and ward office.

Akhil Bharat Panchayat Parishad National Secretary Dr. Jasti Veeranjaneyulu said that earlier the government withdrew Rs 7,660 crore Finance Commission funds from the accounts of Gram Panchayats on the pretext of electricity charges.

Now, with funds being given to YSRCP MLAs through village secretariats to undertake work in villages and towns, the village sarpanchs have been turned into mere procession idols without any authority or work. Moreover, he said that it is unconstitutional.

The 13,300 sarpanches across the State are in dilemma about how to repay the debts as there were no funds with them. Sarpanches are against the Chief Minister's decision to undertake works with volunteers, who should be done by sarpanches, MPTCs, councillors and cooperators, he pointed out.

In fact, he opined that Chief Minister Jagan's decision is against the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments. He said that it is the responsibility of the state government to grant funds to Sarpanches, MPTCs and ZPTCs to undertake works like roads, drains, drinking water and sanitation.

It is like creating a parallel system with secretariats and volunteers bypassing the powers of gram panchayats, municipalities and municipal corporations. A few thousand crores released by the 13th and 14th Finance Commissions and Rs.1000 crores from the 15th Finance Commission have not been received by the Gram Panchayats.

Dr. Veeranjaneyu appealed to the Chief Minister to deposit the funds directly in the accounts of Gram Panchayats. There are many issues like identification cards for sarpanchs across the state, increase in honorarium from Rs.3 thousand to Rs.15 thousand, payment of registration surcharge to village panchayats and proper payment of salaries to village green ambassadors. All panchayats and welfare schemes should be delivered by village sarpanchs.

He asked the Gram Panchayats to have the necessary funds to carry out works in the villages at a time when people are suffering from infectious diseases due to floods and incessant rains.