Panchayats facing dire situations

VIJAYAWADA: TDP Politburo Member and former minister Kollu Ravindra lashed at the state government for debilitating the Village Sarpanch and Panchayat system in the state, and added that all the 13,344 panchayats in the state have been witnessing a great distress due to the inimical actions of the government which impeding the developmental activities in the villages. CPM organised a Round Table Conference to discuss the problems of the Villages' at Vijayawada on Tuesday.

TDP Politburo Member Kollu Ravindra, CPM State Secretary V SrinivasaRao and other political party leaders, Panchayat Sarpanches union leaders participated. Addressing the occasion, Kollu Ravindra alleged that all sectors/systems in the state have been totally ruined under the regime of the YSRCP government for the past four years. He said that Village Sarpanches were leaving the villages as they were unable to solve the villagers' problems.

He further asked the Centre government to focus on the injustice being done to the AP Sarpanches. Kollu Ravidra informed that the state government has been diverting all the funds which are being released for the panchayat developments. He said that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had diverted Rs 38,000 crores which were intended to undertake the developmental activities in the villages.

He informed that the Telugu Desam Party will always support the programmes whatever are undertaken by the sarpanches. CPM State Secretary V Srinivasa Rao said that the government had weakened the Panchayat system by implementing a parallel voluntary and village secretariat system. He informed that around 336 crores of panchayat funds were taken away in the name of electricity bills.