Hyderabad: Telangana women and child welfare minister Seethakka revealed in the Assembly on Monday, December 16, that gram panchayat bills worth Rs 690 crore are pending. This was informed in response to a question by former Telangana minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader Harish Rao.
The minister further said, “The government has released Rs 450 crore has been released for the Gram panchayat so far, we need some time to clear the pending bills.”
“The former minister and his party MLAs should understand that the gram panchayat bills have been pending since the BRS was in power. If you would have sanctioned the bills they wouldn’t have been pending today,” Seethakka remarked.
Seethakka admitted that the bills for some of the gram panchayats remain pending as they were stopped due to the Telangana Assembly elections last year. She accused the BRS of leaving behind pending bills. Taking a jibe at the BRS party she said, “Your government left pending bills due to lethargy, your party should be known as Bakayala (Pending) Rashtra Samithi.”
Following the minister’s response, the BRS MLA criticised the Telangana government over a delay in payment of bills to the sarpanches. He alleged that Congress has harassed the sarpanches by not clearing the pending bills.
Stressing the plight of the sarpanches, he said, “The sarpanches have appealed to the minister and government seeking clearance of the pending bills; they were arrested from various parts of Telangana for demanding their right.”
Speaking of the Palle and Pattana Pragati schemes under the BRS government, the former minister said, “Under the BRS government Rs 275 crore were released every month for the Palle Pragathi and 150 crores for Pattana Pragathi. However, since the Congress came to power, not a single rupee has been given to the gram panchayat.”
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The Siddipet MLA further remarked that the Centre had recognised 20 best gram panchayats out of which 19 were from Telangana. He credited former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao for the development of gram panchayats in Telangana.
Attacking the Telangana government further, Rao added that the funds for the State Finance Corporation have not been released since the Congress came to power and gram panchayat bills are yet to be cleared allegedly leading to sarpanches dying by suicide.
Rao accused the Congress government of withholding the gram panchayat bills while Rs 1200 crores were released to big contractors. He went on to say that salaries haven’t been paid to the members of Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency and Zonal Parishad Territorial Constituency for nine months.
“Non-payment of bills and salaries by the Telangana government has adversely affected people as they are unable to clear debts.”
