Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj Chamber has demanded the State government revive grama sachivalayam (village secretariat) system in the State.
The chamber state committee meeting was held here on Monday. Addressing the gathering, Chamber State president Yelamanchili Babu Rajendraprasad said that revenue employees, VROs, VRAs and AEOs have recently made objectionable comments against the Panchayat Raj system. They asserted that they would not work under sarpanches and MPTCs. It was an insult to the elected representatives and people who elected them. The chamber strongly condemns their remarks, he said.
According to the 73 and 74 Constitutional Amendments, Article 243G, and 29 subjects mentioned under 11 schedule, all government employees working at village level should work under sarpanches and MPTCs. Likewise, employees at mandal level should work under Mandal Parsihad/secretariat and district level employees should work under Zilla Parishad. But, the VROs, VRAs etc were reluctant to honour the constitutionally guaranteed empowerment of local bodies, he said.
The chamber waged relentless battle for strengthening of local bodies and their powers. Consequently, the then State government headed by N. Chandrababu Naidu paved way for village secretariat in 2001. Unfortunately, the successor government dissolved the system in 2007 and handed over the land records etc to revenue department. The local bodies lost control over the records and powers. It watered down the spirit of 73 and 74 constitutional amendments, he said adding the government was requested to revive the village secretariat system.
Chamber general secretary Birru Pratap Reddy, Telangana Panchayatiraj Chamber honourary president Pusuluru Narender and president Chimpula Satyanarayana Reddy spoke.
