Hyderabad: A protest rally to Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy’s residence as part of Telangana Sarpanches Forum’s ‘poru bata’, demanding settlement of pending bills for works taken up in their respective gram panchayats, was foiled by the police, who detained around 2,000 protestors in different parts in the city. They were taken to the Bolaram and Trimulgherry police stations and detained briefly.
The protestors said that they wanted to submit a memorandum. BRS and Congress leaders have been trading charges against one another with regard to the pendency.
Adakal former sarpanch Bhemanna Yadav said that each of the 12,796 sarpanches and had taken loans ranging up to Rs.50 lakh against heavy interest for taking up works in their villages between 2019 and 2023. The BRS government had promised to reimburse them.
“The sarpanches’ tenure ended on January 31. They all faced problems with regard to fund allocation during the BRS rule, even though K. Chandrashekar Rao had repeatedly promised to release the funds. We pinned hopes on the Congress government. Revanth Reddy promised to clear dues but we are still waiting for a response from the government,” Bhemanna said.
Praneel Kumar P., former sarpanch of Nasurullahbad of Mahbubnagar district, and general secretary of the forum, said they had to take loans for executing works related to roads, drainage, and other sanitation in villages. He said that the BRS government owed them around Rs.3,000 crore, which had been pending for five years.
Senior BRS leader T. Harish Rao who rushed to the Trimulgherry police station and that the arrests demonstrated that democracy has been murdered. “All that the sarpanches are asking is clearing the bills pending for 11 months. The BRS condemns the strong-arm tactics of the government over the arrests and demands that all pending bills be cleared.”
Panchayat raj minister Danasari Anasuya Seethakka said that the government would clear all the pending bills to sarpanchs, and blamed the BRS for this unfortunate situation.
“For years, the BRS government held back on payments and the Congress government is checking the pending bills and the process is on,” she said and requested the former sarpanches to not fall into the BRS’ political trap.
