Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has strongly reacted to the criticism levelled by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on the Centre giving funds directly to the gram panchayats and demanded the latter explain why he is reluctant on devolution of powers to the local bodies when he seeks decentralisation of powers of Centre to States.
Party president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, vice president D.K.Aruna, MLA Raghunandan Rao and others said on Thursday that it is “unfortunate” that the Chief Minister is trying to “scuttle” the 73rd Amendment and stated that the Constitution itself had mandated that save for education and health, about 29 subjects like ration cards, pensions and house construction should be taken care of by the gram panchayats.
The Centre’s direct funds to the gram panchayats is to “plug the corruption in the system” as the situation has become especially “pathetic” in Telangana with the Government “throttling” the sarpanch powers and denying access to the funds but allowing the ruling party MLAs to have “discretionary powers”.
Sarpanches have been resorting to the extreme act unable to pay the bills for the works taken up. Gram panchayats which have had unanimous election of sarpanchs too are devoid of funds with false cases being foisted or suspending them for demanding the government to release the dues, they charged.
Having pushed the TS into a “debt trap by taking loans indiscriminately” for Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project, Mission Bhagiratha, Mission Kakatiya and others, KCR has no moral right to take up cudgels against the Centre, said Mr. Sanjay Kumar.
The wages to be paid under the MNGRES for the rural folk are not being paid in time despite the funds’ release from the Centre and this was brought to my notice during my recent padayatra, he claimed, in statement released to the media. Mrs. Aruna alleged that KCR had “completely dismantled local bodies and deprived the representatives of local bodies of powers”.
Mr. Rao, who held a press conference at the party office, stated that the all the works in the villages from roads, sewage, greenary,toilets, etc., are taken up with Centre’s funds but the TRS government has been “putting spokes stalling them”. The MLA challenged Finance Minister T. Harish Rao for an open debate at a place of his choice on the funds devolution to the panchayats in the last few years by Centre and state government.
In a separate press conference vice president NVSS Prabhakar accused the TRS of choosing “economic defaulters” and “tax evaders” for Rajya Sabha seats neglecting the party cadre. He demanded a “white paper” be issued on the financial position as the TRS regime was bent on taking more loans without showing any fiscal discipline.
