Sarpanches demand FC funds back in Panchayat accounts

Guntur: Sarpanches of the villages in Vatti Cherukuru and Kakumanu mandals in Guntur district staged a protest at the Collectorate here on Thursday, demanding that Rs 10,640 crore funds of 14th and 15th Finance Commission should be deposited back into the accounts of village panchayat.

Katrapadu sarpanch M Siva Sankar and Vatticherukuru sarpanch A Vijay Kumar in a submission to the district Collector demanded that Gram Sachivalayams and Gram Volunteers should be merged with village panchayats to work under the guidance of sarpanches.

NREGA works and funds should be brought back again under the control of village panchayats, they added.

Demanding hike in the honorarium of sarpanches to Rs 15,000 per month, the sarpanches demanded free power supply to minor panchayats should continue like in the past since 1984. Recalling that the second State Finance Commission had recommended allocation of Rs 200 crore for 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 also, they demanded that Rs 800 crore should be deposited in the accounts of village panchayats. They also demanded the formation of 4th State Finance Commission immediately.

The sarpanches rued that the State government has stopped releasing the share of village panchayats to the tune of several hundreds of crores of rupees realised from mining cess, entertainment tax, professional tax, per capita grant, water cess, sand seigniorage registration fee and others. They demanded release of those funds to the village panchayats.

The sarpanches demanded that the village panchayat accounts should be delinked with CFMS and the sarpanches should be allowed to spend the amount from the general funds. They sought prominent place in the programmes of the Central and State governments as per protocol during the programmes conducted in the respective villages.

KB Palem sarpanch P Ravindra Babu, Chivallamudi sarpanch J Devi, Vinjanampadu sarpanch N Rajyalakshmi, MPTC of Vinjanampadu V Sujatha, ward member in Chimallapudi village Y Vani and Dr Jasti Veeranjaneyulu, National Secretary of All India Panchayati Parishad also participated.