Gram Panchayat funds are constitutional rights, not Congress freebies: KTR

BRS working president KT Rama Rao accused Congress MLAs of treating constitutional entitlements to gram panchayats as charity. Addressing newly elected local body representatives, he alleged misuse of power, poor governance and failure in welfare schemes under the Congress government

Hyderabad: Calling Congress MLAs’ arrogant power-mongers, BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Tuesday charged that power had gone so much to their heads that they now dare to treat constitutional entitlements under government schemes as mere doles dispensed at their mercy.

In a show of strength, he felicitated the newly elected sarpanchs, upa-sarpanchs and ward members from the Khanapur constituency at Telangana Bhavan.

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During the ceremony, he also extended a warm welcome to independent candidates who won the sarpanch elections by offering them the party’s pink scarves and officially inviting them to join the BRS fold.

He accused the Congress party of arrogance and misuse of power. “Power has gone to the heads of Congress MLAs. They are even threatening to kill people,” he alleged, highlighting what he described as a deteriorating law and order situation under the current regime.

Emphasising the rights of local bodies, he stressed that funds allocated to sarpanchs are not at the mercy of MLAs but a constitutional entitlement. These are not acts of charity from MLAs. They are rights provided by the Constitution, he said.

He further criticised the Congress for failing to deliver on housing schemes and questioned, “Who are these MLAs to withhold Indiramma houses? These are not their personal property.”
The BRS leader questioned whether the MLAs are funding such schemes from their own pockets. “Are they selling their own assets to build them? Government funds are not the personal property of Congress MLAs or their families,” he said.

Rama Rao accused the Congress government of betraying Backward Classes by reducing reservations to 17 percent. He also claimed that the party hastily conducted elections to secure Rs 3,500 crore in Central funds. “Seventy percent of Finance Commission funds go directly to gram panchayats, and no one has the right or authority to stop them,” he asserted.

Expressing confidence in the BRS resurgence, he declared, “The pink flag will fly high again on Khanapur soil.” He took a dig at Chief Minister Revanth Reddy for what he called unprecedented involvement in sarpanch elections.

“In history, no chief minister like NTR, YSR or KCR ever campaigned for sarpanch polls, but Revanth is doing it,” Rama Rao remarked.

He alleged that the Chief Minister was indirectly campaigning in villages under the guise of victory celebrations, pushing the State into further turmoil.

“Since Congress came to power, villages have plunged into crisis,” Rama Rao alleged.