Telangana Allocates 1,500 Crores To Gram Panchayats

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao today said with its new and improved Panchayat Raj Act, Telangana would get 12,751 new village panchayats, and that there would be no chance for nagara panchayats.

The Chief Minister also said that the state government would allot Rs 1,500 crores for gram panchayats and another Rs 1,000 crores for municipalities.

"Our intention is to develop villages to have all standard facilities and make need-based allocations of funds with cheque powers to sarpanches and upa-sarpanches," he said.

During a debate on the Panchayat Raj Amendment Bill in the Assembly on Thursday, KCR lamented that villages in the state had remained undeveloped since the last 71 years. He accused all the previous governments of criminally neglecting the villages, which were lagging behind and turned into stinking grounds which needed immediate attention paid to their sanitation facilities and cleanliness.

"The erstwhile block system was good and MLAs used to be afraid of block presidents at the village and block levels," he said. "With the new Act, the villages will get back to that past period of glory," he said.

He added that there would also be direct elections for Sarpanch posts in village panchayats hereon.

The Chief Minister slammed BJP member G Kishan Reddy for his comment that the Act was being promulgated in a hasty manner. "We have worked for two months before the Bill was moved in the House," he said.

KCR also said that all villages would get potable waters in three months, and that village panchayats would get at least Rs 3 lakhs.

KCR also took a dig at the previous governments for failing to plant even 50 lakh saplings. He warned that the TRS government would sack sarpanches and village secretaries if they failed to reach the targets for planting saplings and to protect them as part of the Haritha Haram project.