HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao lashed out at the Congress party for making ‘baseless allegations’ in the State Assembly that the government was diverting Panchayat Raj funds.He said, “It is not proper to make false accusations on the floor of the House. The government has made Sarpanches proud by developing the gram panchayats. Many villages in the State have received awards from the Central government for their progress,” he said.
Keen on sharing the achievements of the government in transforming villages across the State, Rao appealed to Assembly Speaker Pocharam Srinivas Reddy to permit an elaborate discussion on Palle Pragathi, Pattana Pragathi and the implementation of NREGA programme. He also urged the Speaker to constitute a committee to tour any village identified by the Opposition parties to ascertain its state of development. The Chief Minister said that the allegations of Opposition party MLAs that the gram panchayat funds were being diverted were far from the truth and made it clear that the government had issued GOs as per the Telangana State Panchayat Raj Act, 2018.
“Let us run the House for another 15 to 20 days if necessary, so that everyone has access to all the facts. Nowhere is it said that the funds would be given to unanimous gram panchayats. There is no mention of that in the new Panchayati Raj Act. The distribution and release of funds would be done in accordance with the Act. The government will provide all the details pertaining to the release of funds to 2,796 gram panchayats in the State. Copies of the same will be provided to each member,” the CM asserted.
Attacking the previous Congress regime, he said, “In the last 10 years, the Congress government had spent Rs 4 on every person on an average. The TRS government is spending Rs 650.” He added that the government had even granted funds to the panchayats by halting payments to Ministers and MLAs during the Covid-19 crisis.
Seethakka, Bhatti raise funds issue in Assembly
Earlier, Congress MLA D Anasuya and CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka had raised the question of diversion of funds and had demanded that the State government give clarity on the funds being released to the villages. The MLA had asked the State government why it was afraid of discussing the problems faced by the villages of the State
