CPM demands Telangana govt to conduct Panchayat elections

The CPM State unit has demanded the State government to hold the elections immediately as the term of panchayats ends on January 31.

Hyderabad: With the Gram Panchayats term ending this month end, the State government is planning to appoint Special Officers in the panchayats for administration.

Accordingly, the district administrations are preparing the list of officials to be appointed and deputed as Special Officers from different departments.

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There are 12,777 panchayats in the State and the district administrations are working onto recommend officials in the ranks of tahsildars, MPDOs, Panchayat Raj Assistant engineers, Mission Bhagiratha assistant engineers, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) supervisors and others to be appointed as Special officers.

Orders pertaining to appointment of Special Officers are likely to be issued in a couple of days. Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister D Anasuya while speaking to media persons at Vemulawada had said that holding Panchayat elections in the near future was not possible.

However, the State government’s plans have not gone well with Sarpanches and a few political parties. They are demanding the State government to conduct the panchayat elections.

The CPM State unit has demanded the State government to hold the elections immediately as the term of panchayats ends on January 31.

“It seems that the Congress government has decided to appoint special officers and had already issued orders to the District Collectors. The CPM State Committee opposes the plans to appoint special officers in place of elected bodies,” said CPM State Secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram.

Panchayat elections should be held immediately to ensure continuity of the governing bodies elected by the people, he said.