Hyderabad: Former Minister T. The Harish Rao-led BRS attacked the government over the issue of pending payments to sarpanchs and staged a walkout saying it was not satisfied with the government’s response to the issue.
The issue came up during a question and answer session with Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister Dansari ‘Sithakka’ Anasuya, in response to questions from BRS members and BJP leader Kathipalli Venkata Ramana Reddy, on the withdrawal of pending bills related to gram panchayats, mandals and districts. Councils said, “By November 1, 2024, Rs 691.93 crore to sarpanchs. Bills will be paid soon. The term of sarpanch ended in February this year after we came to power. Caste survey is being done and then local body elections will be held. Bills pendency started after 2014. Harish Rao, as Finance Minister, had to clear the bills.
In response, Harish Rao said the government is focused on clearing the bills of big contractors, which it has recently done to the tune of Rs 1,200 crore. He has demanded payment of salary and other bills of representatives of local bodies before the next round of Gram Panchayat elections. Harish Rao said the government should be clear on the time frame for payment of pending bills and salaries.
The BRS leader said that the sarpanches met the ministers and held ‘chalo sabha’ to resolve their problems but to no avail. The problem of sarpanches started when the Congress government stopped disbursing Rs 270 crore to the Palle Pragati Fund every month which the BRS government failed to do. “When BRS was in power, Telangana won 19 out of 20 awards given by the Center to Gram Panchayats. The situation has become so bad that even the US has warned its citizens not to travel to Telangana for fear of Chikungunya-like fever. The current government has refused even the 15th Finance Commission grants to Gram Panchayats. “The Congress should respect its manifesto which promised to implement the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments and strengthen the panchayats,” he said.
In a written reply to a question whether the government was aware of the chaos due to the pending bill clearing of local body sarpanch, MPTC, JPTC and other people’s representatives, he said it was not.
BJP’s Venkata Ramana Reddy also expressed displeasure over the plight of the sarpanches and demanded their payment within a period of at least one month.
Intervening in the discussion, Legislative Affairs Minister D. Shridhar Babu asked if the BRS government released Rs 270 crore every month to Palle Pragati as claimed by its leaders, then questions would be raised about the unpaid bills at the end of the term of the BRS government.