BJP accuses TRS Govt of not giving funds to gram panchayats

Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Bandaru Dattatraya today accused the TRS government in Telangana of not giving any funds to the gram panchayats and taking away the powers of Sarpanches and other local bodies. Attacking the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on his accusation against the Centre on devolution of funds and not giving more powers to the states, Dattatraya alleged that for the last four years the TRS government had not granted a single penny to the gram panchayats in the state.

"On the other hand, the Central government gave amount to all Sarpanches through cheques. The state government has to give Rs 1,000 crore, but the funds have been diverted,"the Secunderabad MP alleged at a press conference here. On the Telangana Panchayat Raj Bill, 2018, recently passed by the assembly, Dattatraya claimed that there was nothing new in it but only the number of gram panchayats, thandas (hamlets) and sarpanches have been increased.

There was no devolution of funds to the gram panchayats which the state finance commission has to give. Powers of Sarpanches have been taken away, he said.

"Instead of unnecessarily propagating political agenda like 'cooperative federalism'", the government should give powers to the Sarpanches, mandal praja parishads and zilla praja parishads, he said.

On Raos proposal to form a new political front at the Centre, Dattatraya said everyone is planning new fronts, but all regional parties should think of national interest first.

The former Union Minister further attacked the government on the findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General reports over the state governments programmes and policies in the last four years, particularly the flagship programmes-- Mission Kakatiya, Mission Bhagiratha.