Centre holding back funds to harass Telangana, says KTR

Stating that the BJP-led Centre was acting with vengeance towards Telangana, KT Rama Rao said the Centre was yet to clear MGNREGS dues worth Rs.1,200 crore

Rajanna Sircilla: Stating that the BJP-led Centre was acting with vengeance towards Telangana, besides treating the State like an enemy country, Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister KT Rama Rao said the Centre was yet to clear MGNREGS dues worth Rs.1,200 crore.

On the contrary, the State government would be releasing Rs.1,300 crore by the end of this month to clear dues pertaining to Palle Pragathi, Constituency Development Programmes and other grants, he said.

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These funds would be utilized to clear arrears of up to Rs.1 crore each due to panchayats and rural bodies under different grants. The cumulative Rs.1,300 crore to be released this month end would aid in clearing all arrears of nearly three months, he said.

Addressing the National Panchayat Awards distribution programme here on Monday, the Minister said had the union government invested similar efforts as was put in by the State government in rural empowerment, there would have been scope to work with double enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, the Centre was acting with vengeance towards Telangana and treating the State like an enemy country. As financial sanctions were imposed on enemy countries to create unrest, similarly the rightful share of Rs.1,200 crore under MGNREGS payable to Telangana was being deliberately held back by the Centre, he said.

“I request Sarpanches and other elected public representatives to discuss the Centre’s discrimination and political vendetta against Telangana in villages,” he said, adding that at a time when the Telangana government was implementing the Palle Pragathi programme for rural empowerment, the Centre was holding back funds to harass the State government.

If people had any apprehensions about these charges, they could file Right to Information applications to seek all details, he said.

Complementing Gram Panchayats that won the national Panchayat Raj awards, the Minister said Rajanna Sircilla had won the Best Zilla Parishad award twice at the national level.

In addition to this, Rajanna Sircilla bagged the Best District award in the four star category thrice under the Swachh Survekshan rankings. This was possible due to the united efforts put in by the district administration and elected public representatives, he said.

In the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, Gangadevipally and Ankapur were identified as role model villages. Now, under the BRS government, all the 12,769 Gram Panchayats were competing with each other in ensuring sanitation, greenery, rural development, provision of amenities, he stated.

With effective implementation of Palle Pragathi programme, all the gram panchayats should serve as index for rural development in the country.

In 2014, a team from Telangana had visited Kerala to study best practices in gram panchayats. Now, teams from 11 to 12 States were visiting Telangana to study best practices.

Further, Telangana’s administrative policies and governance were being taught to trainee officers at Lal Bahadur Shastry Academy, Mussoorie, as part of the course curriculum, he said, adding that this was a matter of pride for Telangana.