Hyderabad: Former sarpanches of various gram panchayats in Telangana held a peaceful protest at the Telangana Martyrs Memorial at Gun Park near the assembly on Monday, demanding the payment of the pending bills for various developmental works in the villages.
An argument between them and the police personnel took place at the venue after which they were briefly detained.
The sarpanches who gathered under the banner of a joint action committee gave the Congress government a deadline of September 30 to pay their pending bills, failing which they would lay siege to ‘Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Praja Bhavan,’.
They also warned that they would not let the officials enter the villages if the bills were not paid.
“Nine months have passed since the term of sarpanches has ended. In these months we have represented twice to the chief minister Revanth Reddy and five times to deputy CM Bhatti Vikramarka to the panchayat raj minister, and the MLAs, panchayat raj commissioner, principal secretary and the MPDOs, but all in vain,” said the leader of sarpanches forum Yadaiah Goud.
Goud said that though the sarpanches represented the issue to the Telangana governor two months ago, and despite the latter promising to resolve their issues within a month, nothing has been done.
“Several sarpanches have died by suicide and many of them are on the brink of committing suicide if the bills for various works are not paid immediately. Most recently a sarpanch from Mahabubabad district died by suicide,” a protesting sarpanch pointed out.
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It should be recalled that during the BRS government, sarpanches had waged several movements demanding the payment of their bills for developmental and infrastructure works in the gram panchayats, including the construction of Rythu Vedikas, Vaikuntha Dhamams, street lights, CC Roads, purchase of tractors for gram panchayats, to name a few.
According to the sarpanches, the pending bills were around Rs 1,200 crore to Rs 1,500 crore payable by the state government.
“We have accumulated debts to the tune of Rs 4-5 crore to get the developmental works in the villages done, but till now not even a single rupee has been paid to us,” claimed another sarpanch.
The Congress and the BJP had both promised that if they were elected to power, their bills would be promptly paid.
