BJP Urges Governor to help Sarpanches, MPTCs, ZPTCs

The State BJP leaders today submitted a memorandum to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan over the "plight" of sarpanches, MPTCs and other local government representatives in the State.

Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, MP; Soyam Bapu Rao, MP; former MLC N Ramchander Rao and others submitted to the Governor that while as a consequence of the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution, Gram Panchayats (GPs) had been conferred certain rights and powers, the State government had been neglecting the GPs and the elected local government representatives including sarpanches, MPTCs and ZPTCs.

They alleged that the constitutionally mandated powers had not been conferred on the panchayats, which was a brazen violation of the Constitution.

"Village sarpanches neither get even the minimum respect from the heads of the respective district administration nor does anyone respond to their requests or solve their grievances. The government doesn't give them rights as per the provisions of the Constitution, and also doesn't make any financial allocation for the development of the villages. In every district, special officers, MDOs and MPOs have been appointed to assist and oversee the developmental activities in the villages. At the behest of the government, sarpanches have undertaken a slew of developmental activities by tapping their personal resources. The works have been completed, but the sanctioned amounts haven't been released. The sarpanches, who come from middle class and lower middle class families, have been facing insurmountable problems due to this strange situation," they said.

"Pending bills in each village are in the range of Rs 2 lakh to Rs 25 lakh. The representations of the sarpanches and the local officials for the release of the bills have not been heeded to. Strangely, the government issues GOs showing the release of the amounts, but by freezing the accounts, the government willfully makes the funds inaccessible to the sarpanches. It is learnt that when the sarpanches meet the district level officials seeking the release of funds, they are being intimidated and threatened with the cancellation of their cheque power, which is very sad.

"As a result of this situation, sarpanches are facing problems in meeting even the monthly recurring expenditure such as salaries to the staff, diesel bills, current bills, tractor EMIs and so on. While the union government wants to strengthen the villages and the public representatives, the State government is robbing them of their Constitutional rights," they added.

"During the last eight years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi deployed a slew of measures, initiated schemes such as Swashakthi, and allocated funds directly to the GPs to realize Mahatma Gandhi's dream of Gram Swaraj. Unfortunately, the State government, by not releasing its share, has been sabotaging the developmental work. The State government is also diverting the funds released by the Centre, causing problems to sarpanches and MPTCs," they lamented.

The BJP leaders urged the Governor to intervene as the constitutional head of the State and instruct the district Collectors to address the grievances of the sarpanches and the MPTCs.

They also requested the Governor to instruct the State government to immediately make payments for the works executed under Palle Prgathi; pay allowances for the execution of new works under Palle Pragathi; protect the constitutional rights of the sarpanches, MPTCs and ZPTCs; instruct the officials to extend courtesies and respect to all the public representatives at the grassroots level; and ensure that the grants from the union government meant for the village development were not diverted.

The memorandum was signed by Swamy Goud, Dr G Manohar Reddy, D Pradeep Kumar, Koppu Sukanya, Manda Jyothi, Jaana Bhai, Sadha MallaReddy, Batharaju Sathaiah, Veeramalla Ravinder Reddy, Karandla Madhukar, Vanam Mounika and Singireddy Venkat Reddy.