The Forum for Good Governance (FGG) has requested Chief Secretary A. Santhi Kumari to take steps to prevent squandering of public money and freeze release of funds under the Special Development Fund (SDF) till the Assembly elections.
The FGG expressed concern that hundreds of crores of tax payers’ money is wasted in the name of SDF. “We have a reason to believe that SDF is created keeping in view the impending elections,” FGG president M. Padmanabha Reddy said.
The State government has made a provision of ₹10,000 crore as SDF in the Budget but there were no guidelines regarding allotment of this fund to executing agencies. The Budget release was not need-based or uniform.
In a letter addressed to the Chief Secretary, he quoted the instance of Achampet Assembly constituency for which ₹200 crore was released without any action plan and this was a windfall for the local MLA Guvvala Balaraju. “The works sanctioned have no relation to the needs of the people or local requirement,” he said, adding that most of the amounts were spent on construction of places of worship, caste based community halls and related works.
Achampet was one of the most backward areas with mostly SC and ST population and the condition of schools and hospitals in the area were deplorable. The Government’s flagship Mission Bhagiratha did not cover the interior tribal hamlets of the constituency, but the district collector did not consider these minimum basic needs as developmental activities.
“He found construction of places of worship as developmental activity?” he asked. Moreover, most of the works were allotted on nomination basis to ruling party workers.
