Heated Debate In Assembly On Pending Sarpanch Bills

The Telangana Assembly today witnessed heated exchanges between the treasury benches and the principal opposition party the BRS on the issue of the pending Panchayat Raj bills.

BRS MLA Harish Rao raised a question on the pending bills of Sarpanches during the Question Hour. He alleged that the Congress government had not given a single rupee to the Gram Panchayats since it had come to power in Telangana.

Responding to the remarks, Panchayat Raj Minister Seethakka said that the term of the Sarpanches ended in February 2024, and that the pending bills were inherited from the previous BRS government. She said that if Harish Rao had signed off on them as the Finance Minister during the BRS government, the bills would have been cleared.

"The BRS government left a lot of bills pending and could not pay them. Moreover, the Centre did not provide funds from the 15th Finance Commission. Despite facing financial difficulties, the State government will clear all the pending dues to the Panchayats," she said.

Countering Seethakka's statement, Rao alleged that the State government was paying the bills of big contractors but was not providing the Rs 691 crore due to small contractors for a year, harassing the Sarpanches and MPTCs. The Sarpanches and MPTCs had approached the Governor and ministers seeking the release of pending bills, but there had been no response from the government, he said. Rao also claimed that Rs 270 crore used to be released to the panchayats every month during the BRS government as part of Palle Pragathi.

Refuting Rao's remarks, minister Sridhar Babu called the Rs 270 crore number a blatant lie. "If the previous government indeed released that amount every month, where did the pending bills come from?" he asked.

He claimed that the Congress government came to power in December 2023 and that the Sarpanches' terms ended in February 2024, and so everyone knew whose government the bills were pending from.

Babu also said that Sarpanches and Vice-Sarpanches had committed suicides during the BRS government and not under the Congress goverment. The Congress government was actually taking on the responsibility of repaying the debts that they had incurred, he claimed, and assured the members that the pending bills of Sarpanches, Vice-Sarpanches and MPTCs would be cleared soon.