'Organise thorough training for sarpanches,upa sarpanchas'

: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao Friday directed officials to organise a thorough training programme for sarpanchas and Upa sarpanchas who would be elected in the ongoing Gram Panchayat polls, to give them an understanding on shaping the future of villages.

Rao, who held a meeting with MLAs andofficials on the issue, said a proper orientation should also to be provided to the elected representatives in developing greenery in the villages and on sanitation programmes, a release from his office said Friday night.

The elected representatives should also be givena clear understanding on the recently enacted Panchayat Raj Act, Rao said.

He instructed that copies of Panchayat Raj Act in Telugu be sent to every Gram Panchayat, Mandal and Zilla Parishad officers, it said.

Observing that there might be some unavoidable delay in entrusting responsibilities and providing funds to village panchayats as a full budget was likely to be presented only after the Lok Sabha elections, he said the Sarpanches and village secretaries can be transformed into change agents by giving them training before that (the allocation of funds).

"Towards entrusting responsibilities and providing funds to the village panchayats, there might be some unavoidable delay.

Since the government of India is going for Vote on account Budget, the state may also present Vote on account Budget.

In the months of April and May, there would be elections to the Lok Sabha.

Full-fledged budget will be introduced later after the elections.

It will be possible to allocate budget to the panchayats only in the full-fledged budget," Rao said.

In between that, Sarpanchas and village secretaries should be shaped as change agents for the integrated development of the villages by imparting training, he said.