BRS Betrayed Unanimously Elected GPs: Sarpanchs

During the poll campaign, the BRS promised a financial incentive of Rs 5 lakh to the unanimously elected gram panchayats in the state.

The panchayat elections were held in three phases in 2019 and 157 out of 1,706 gram panchayats in the erstwhile Warangal district were elected unanimously. Of them, 45 GPs in Warangal district, 10 in Hanamkonda, 18 in Jangaon, 31 in Mahabubabad, 21 in Mulugu and 33 in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district were elected unanimously.
In the erstwhile Karimnagar district, of the total 1,215 panchayats, 108 including 15 in Karimnagar district, 37 in Jagtial, 43 in Rajanna Sircilla and 13 in Peddapalli district were elected unanimously.

The BRS government failed to extend the special grant for the development of these villages during the last five years, rued the sarpanchs whose tenure will end by January 31. All the villages have been lacking development due to no sanction of funds, they alleged.

Congress leader Md. Jaffar alleged that the BRS government introduced the Palle Pragathi programme giving targets to sarpanches for constructing Prakruthi Vanams, burial grounds, nurseries apart from Haritha Haram programmes in their villages.

Many sarpanchs managed to complete the works in their respective villages by investing money out of their own pockets and loans from money lenders. But, the then BRS government did not release funds and the bills were still pending, pushing the sarpanchs into a deep financial crisis, he alleged.