Telangana Assembly Witnesses Heated debate on pending Panchayat Raj bills
BRS and Congress Spar in Assembly
Hyderabad: The Telangana Assembly on Monday witnessed heated exchanges between the treasury benches and the principal opposition party BRS on the issue of pending the Panchayat Raj bills.
BRS MLA Harish Rao raised a question on pending bills to Sarpanches during the Assembly Question Hour. He alleged that the Congress government had not been giving a single rupee to the Gram Panchayats since it came to power in Telangana.
Responding to the remarks, Minister for Panchayat Raj Seethakka said the term of the Sarpanchs was ended in February, 2024 and the pending bills were inherited from the previous BRS government.
She said if Harish Rao had signed as the Finance Minister during the BRS government, the bills would have been cleared.
"The BRS government left a lot of bills pending and could not pay the bills. Moreover, the Centre did not provide funds from the 15th Finance Commission. Despite facing financial difficulties, the State government will clear all the pending dues to the Panchayats," Seethakka said.
Countering Seethakka’s statement, Harish Rao alleged that the State government is paying bills to big contractors, but it is not providing Rs 691 crore to small contractors for a year, harassing the Sarpanches and MPTCs.
The Sarpanches and MPTCs had approached the Governor and Ministers, seeking the release of pending bills, but there was no response from the government, Harish Rao pointed out.
Refuting the remarks made by Harish Rao on the pending bills, Minister Sridhar Babu said that Harish Rao's claim that Rs. 270 crore was released to panchayats every month as part of Palle Pragathi during the BRS government was a blatant lie.
"If the previous government released Rs. 270 crore to the Panchayats every month, where the pending bills came from," Sridhar Babu asked.
He claimed that the Congress government came to power in December, 2023 and the Sarpanch's term ended in February 2024, so everyone knows whose government the bills are pending under.
Sridhar Babu alleged that Sarpanches and vice-Sarpanches committed suicide during the BRS government, but the Congress government was taking responsibility for the debts incurred by the BRS government and was trying to repay them gradually.
Minister Sridhar Babu has reiterated that the pending bills of Sarpanches, Vice-Sarpanches and MPTC will be cleared soon.
