There are no pending bills pertaining to gram panchayats (GPs) lying with the Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Department as the Telangana Government has cleared almost all bills due from its side, Minister for PR and RD Errabelli Dayakar Rao told the representatives of sarpanches who called on him here on Thursday.
A delegation of sarpanches led by Sarpanches Association president Gudur Laxminarasimha Reddy, general secretary Palakonda Praneel Chander, Telangana State Sarpanches Welfare Association president S. Bhumanna Yadav and others met the Minister at the latter’s residence here and requested him to clear all pending bills to gram panchayats.
In response, the Minister explained to the delegation along with proof (release orders) and stated that there are no pending bills due from the State government to gram panchayats as all funds and grants had almost been released. He assured the sarpanches that remaining dues, if any, too would be cleared.
The Minister stated that there are dues of ₹1,140 crore funds pertaining to the material component under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) from the Centre and they would be passed on to the gram panchayats as and when they were received by the State.
On the funds released by the State Government, Mr. Dayakar Rao explained that ₹760 crore bills pertaining to Gram Panchayat roads and another ₹166 crore funds were released under different heads. The dues pertaining to the cement-concrete (CC) roads would be released as and when the Centre releases them.
Hailing to role of sarpanches in the development of villages, the Minister complimented them for making Palle Pragathi programme a huge success. He assured them that he would take up the matter of providing life insurance cover to sarpanches with Chief Minister and that he would convene an extensive meeting of sarpanches after the completion of the current phase of Palle Pragathi programme.
