Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has asserted that a working Panchayat Raj system should be set up in the State and for this, several measures have been initiated and more are in the offing.
Telangana has notched up successes in many areas but failed in keeping its villages clean, and drew criticism. “Do we need this? We should set up an efficient and accountable PR system. We are also discussing whether to have direct or indirect elections in Panchayat Raj and how to make a Sarpanch deliver services, ” the Chief Minister said while addressing the Collectors’ Conference at Pragathi Bhavan here on Tuesday.
Geographical boundaries would have to be fixed for the new panchayats proposed by the District Panchayat Officers by January 25. Effort should be to create new panchayats without giving scope for litigations and this would be done through a legislation, he said.
He requested the Collectors and District Panchayat Officers to send their suggestions to the Secretary, Panchayat Raj on betterment of PR system.
Good suggestions would be incorporated in the new Panchayat Raj Bill to be introduced in the Assembly in the first week of February.
Indicating that 4,000 more panchayats will be set up in addition to the present 8,684 gram panchayats, Mr.Rao said Panchayat elections should be held and possibility of holding them in February was being examined.
The guidelines for the elections will be incorporated in the Panchayat Raj Bill.
He recalled that once District Collector had supervisory powers over panchayats, but there was no control over them now. Villages literally turned into garbage dumps with no proper sanitation and it was time to decide what responsibilities be assigned to the panchayats.
For this, the government was also considering amending the Municipal Act accordingly, the Chief Minister disclosed.
Listing out the achievements of the State, he said the comprehensive household survey was done in one day, power crisis was overcome and 24x7 power supply was extended to agriculture, drinking water problem was solved and land record purification was done in 100 days to the satisfaction of people and 35 lakh sheep were distributed and their population now increased to 50 lakh.
Telangana was the only State in the country to be giving ₹8,000 input assistance per acre and farmers coordination committees were set up so far at village and mandal level to enable them get support price. The menace of fake seeds and fertlisers was eliminated. The coordination committees in future would unify farmers and help them get remunerative price for their produce first by negotiating the price with the licensed buyer or the commission agent before bringing the produce to the market in phases without swarming the market at once. The committees would also help government in creating crop colonies to benefit farmers.
