Harish flays Telangana govt on pending payment to sarpanchs

HYDERABAD: The BRS with former minister T. Harish Rao taking the lead, mounted a strong attack on the government on the issue of pending payments to sarpanchs, and also staged a walkout later calling dissatisfactory the response from the government on the subject.

The issue came up during the Question Hour with panchayat raj and rural development minister Danasari ‘Seethakka’ Anasuya, in response to a question from BRS members and BJP leader Katipally Venkata Ramana Reddy, on clearance of pending bills pertaining to gram panchayats, mandal and zilla parishads, said “by November 1, 2024, sarpanches were to be paid Rs 691.93 crore. The bills will be paid shortly. The tenure of the sarpanches ended in February after we came to power this year. The caste survey is underway and elections to local bodies will be held after that. The pendency of bills started after 2014. Harish Rao, as the Finance Minister, should have cleared the bills.”

In response, Harish Rao said the government was focused on clearing the bills of big contractors, which it has done to the tune of Rs 1,200 crore recently. He sought payment of salaries and other bills to local body representatives before the next round of gram panchayat elections were held. The government must come clear on the time frame for payment of the pending bills and salaries, Harish Rao said.

The BRS leader said sarpanches met ministers and held a ‘Chalo Assembly’ seeking redressal to their problems but to no avail. Sarpanchs’ troubles began after the Congress government stopped releasing Palle Pragathi funds of Rs 270 crore every month which the BRS government did without fail. “When the BRS was in power, Telangana won 19 of the 20 awards given by the Centre to gram panchayats. The situation has turned so bad that even the US warned its citizens not to travel to Telangana fearing fevers like Chikungunya. The present government diverted even the 15th finance commission grants and denied funds to gram panchayats. The Congress should honour its manifesto promising to implement the 73 and 74 Constitutional amendments and strengthen the panchayats,” he said.

In the written reply to a question whether the government had any knowledge of unrest owing to clearance of pending bills by sarpanches, MPTCs, ZPTCs and other public representatives of local bodies, it responded saying it was not.

BJP’s Venkata Ramana Reddy also expressed displeasure at the woes of sarpanches and sought their payment at least in a month’s time.

Intervening in the discussion, legislative affairs minister D. Sridhar Babu wondered if the BRS government released Rs 270 crore every month towards Palle Pragathi as its leaders are claiming, then the question arises on the unpaid bills at the end of the BRS government’s tenure.