Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao has suggested that MGNREGS be utilised for creating facilities and necessary works in the rural areas besides providing employment to agriculture labour.
He said the villages were in administratively good situation thanks to adequate funds, officers, clear cut policies and if they could not be developed despite these favourable conditions, they could never be developed.
In a meeting with the district collectors, district panchayat officers and other officials here on Tuesday, Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao said that it should be the top priority of every one in the official machinery, including the Chief Minister, to keep villages clean and tidy.
He directed that one lakh threshing floors be created in the farmers’ land all across the State this year besides constructing Vaikunta Dhamams (cremation/burial grounds) in every village in two months and Rythu Vedikas in four months. A village-level plan be prepared on what should be done over next four years and the works be carried out accordingly. A district card should be prepared with these details, he said.
In the meeting attended by ministers, government’s Chief Advisor Rajiv Sharma, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, DGP Mahender Reddy, senior officials from various departments, Chief Minister gave guidance on the work to be done by the district collectors and district panchayat officers
Comprehensive discussions were held in the collectors’ meeting on village development plan, NREGS, Haritha Haram commencing from June 25, rejuvenation of forests, Palle Pragathi — greenery in villages, cleanliness and sanitation, Rythu Bandhu, construction of Rythu Vedikas, setting up of food processing SEZs, coronavirus and seasonal diseases, locust attack, spurious seeds and electricity bills, among others.
Collectors and senior officials expressed their views and Chief Minister gave his direction. He said that under the new Panchayat Raj Act, government decentralised the power and gave full powers to the collectors, filled vacancies from village secretary to State-level posts in Panchayat Raj department, has been releasing ₹308 crore to panchayats every month despite financial crisis due to COVID-19. It would also fulfil the promise of giving funds up to ₹5 lakh to panchayats whose income was less than that per year.
Village panchayats would get ₹9,916 crore under all accounts, including Finance Commission funds, and in four years, they would get ₹39,594 crore and that could further go up. Thus village-wise development plans be prepared for effective utilisation of these funds, Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao said.
He advised the gram panchayats to maintain accounts without fail and be prompt in payment of loans and utility bills. Ten % of funds should necessarily be allocated to Haritha Haram, he said. Various committees appointed for implementation of several government programmes should take up their work as a movement.
funds to MPPs, ZPs
The government also decided to allocate10 % of Finance Commission funds to mandal parishads and five % of funds to Zilla Parishads and any lapse in implementation of greenery and sanitation should not be tolerated, he asserted and assured collectors there would not be any political intervention.
The Chief Minister also listed out works to be taken up in villages under the MNREGS and said that 1,000 threshing platforms would be allocated for each Assembly constituency every year at a cost of ₹750 crore.
He also said that irrigation network mapping should be done as major irrigation projects were nearing completion and every collector should have district-wise network data.
He instructed the collectors to work for curbing the spread of COVID-19 as per a strategy while also taking preventive measures to contain seasonal diseases.
