SANGAREDDY: Sarpanches of several villages in the erstwhile Medak district are facing issues over not getting the bills cleared for works they have completed. In some cases, they had borrowed money to complete works and now they are under pressure for repayment of the loans.
The sarpanches have borrowed and spent money on materials to complete works like Vaikuntha Dhamam, nature parks and Rythu Vedika in record time. The sarpanches of five villages in Siddipet district have reportedly sold one acre of their own land to pay interest on the borrowed money, and some have to pay very amounts of interests. Some of those who are not financially strong and don’t own lands are suffering from severe depression. As a result, most gram panchayat sarpanches in the district feel it’s better to resign from the post rather than continue in office.
The newly formed gram panchayats and sarpanches of smaller panchayats, including those from the ruling party in Sangareddy, Medak and Siddipet districts are deeply dissatisfied with the government. They allege that the government is not making timely payments even though they had undertaken many tasks and spent money borrowed on interest.
The ruling party sarpanches are also frustrated by the fact that they can’t openly criticise the government. Recently, as many as 16 sarpanches in Gajwel constituency, represented by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, resigned en masse. However, they were persuaded to withdraw their reesignations by some party leaders.
A sarpanch from Gajwel constituency said that bills of up to `1 lakh were due for the last two years, and not a single rupee had been received yet. He added despite digging about 50 soak pits in the village, no money was received for them either.
Many have tried making the rounds of treasury offices to get the bills cleared for works under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Sarpanches say the government is giving money to panchayats on the basis of populations they covered, and in many cases it wasn’t enough.
In addition to this, most gram panchayat staff have not even been paid their salaries for the past two months. Sarpanches say that it was not right to torture sarpanches like this in a prosperous State like Telangana.