AP Govt Will Revive, Strengthen Panchayat System: Dy CM Pawan Kalyan
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2024-08-10 16:02 GMT
VIJAYAWADA: Deputy Chief Minister K. Pawan Kalyan has announced that the state government has taken three key decisions, holding gram sabhas across 13,326 panchayats, conducting a pulse survey on utilisation of Jal Jeevan Mission funds, and increasing funds to panchayats for holding Independence Day and Republic Day celebrations.
“These three measures, aimed at reviving and strengthening village panchayats and sarpanch system in the state, will be implemented immediately,” the Deputy CM, who holds the panchayat raj, rural development and rural water supply portfolios, underlined in a statement on Saturday.
“Going by Mahatma Gandhi’s words, villages are pillars of the country and gram swaraj is the way to country’s progress,” he pointed out.
Pawan Kalyan asserted that the government is determined to breathe new life into gram panchayats by financially empowering panchayats in the state and developing basic amenities in villages.
He accused the previous YSRC government of not only depriving funds but diverting them to power discoms. “Panchayats could not even buy bleaching powder for executing sanitation activities in villages. Such was the condition of panchayats under the last government,” he remarked.
The Deputy Chief Minister said this is the reason why the coalition government is taking steps expeditiously to revive panchayats financially and ensure all-around development in rural areas.
In this context, he said gram sabhas will be held across 13,326 gram panchayats simultaneously. Officials and locals at the gram sabhas will decide which development works are to be taken up to benefit the respective villages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme.
Pointing out that ₹4,000 crore have been spent in Andhra Pradesh under the Jal Jeevan Mission, which is the centre’s ambitious project to provide clean tap water to villages, scheme in Andhra Pradesh, Pawan Kalyan underlined that results of the project are not visible at the field level.
He went on to disclose that the AP government, after a 34-year hiatus, has enhanced the funds allocated to gram panchayats for holding Independence Day and Republic Day celebrations to ₹ 10,000 and ₹25,000 from ₹100 and ₹250 respectively.
“Going by Mahatma Gandhi’s words, villages are pillars of the country and gram swaraj is the way to country’s progress,” he pointed out.
Pawan Kalyan asserted that the government is determined to breathe new life into gram panchayats by financially empowering panchayats in the state and developing basic amenities in villages.
He accused the previous YSRC government of not only depriving funds but diverting them to power discoms. “Panchayats could not even buy bleaching powder for executing sanitation activities in villages. Such was the condition of panchayats under the last government,” he remarked.
The Deputy Chief Minister said this is the reason why the coalition government is taking steps expeditiously to revive panchayats financially and ensure all-around development in rural areas.
In this context, he said gram sabhas will be held across 13,326 gram panchayats simultaneously. Officials and locals at the gram sabhas will decide which development works are to be taken up to benefit the respective villages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme.
Pointing out that ₹4,000 crore have been spent in Andhra Pradesh under the Jal Jeevan Mission, which is the centre’s ambitious project to provide clean tap water to villages, scheme in Andhra Pradesh, Pawan Kalyan underlined that results of the project are not visible at the field level.
He went on to disclose that the AP government, after a 34-year hiatus, has enhanced the funds allocated to gram panchayats for holding Independence Day and Republic Day celebrations to ₹ 10,000 and ₹25,000 from ₹100 and ₹250 respectively.