HYDERABAD: BJP and Congress leaders condemned Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday in one voice for his ‘chillara vyavaharam’ comment on the Centre’s decision to send funds to gram panchayats directly without the interference of the State governments.
Terming the CM’s remarks as ‘unfortunate,’ BJP State president Bandi Sanjay said the Centre’s decision was in line with the true spirit of the 73rd and 74th Amendment to the Constitution, empowering gram panchayats to funds and duties directly from the Centre.
Though the Constitution had placed the responsibility of 29 subjects including education and health under the domain of gram panchayats, which included passing resolutions for issuing ration cards, pensions and allotting houses to the poor in gram sabhas, the State government had given all the decision-making powers to the MLAs. This in turn rendered gram panchayats powerless, which Sanjay felt, was nothing short of sub-standard behaviour.
Former TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy wondered why the CM was worried, recalling that it was former prime minister late Rajiv Gandhi, who had brou-ght the reform to strengthen gram panchayats.
Stressing the need to give more powers to sarpanches, MPTCs, MPPs and ZPTCs, he said that in the next Parliament sessions he would demand more Central funds for panchayats.
White paper sought
BJP MLA M Raghunandan Rao dared Finance Minister T Harish Rao to come with a white paper on amount of funds given by the State government to each gram panchayat in Telangana. He sought to know why Vasalamarri, Mulkanuru, Narsannapet and Erravalli, the CM’s adopted villages, were yearning for funds.