Gram panchayats struggle to ensure sanitation; Telangana’s ‘Swachadanam-Pachadanam’ becomes a farce

At many places, spraying of disinfectants and sprinkling of bleaching powder is also turning into a challenge for panchayats, which once used to sweep performance awards at the national level.

Hyderabad: Even as seasonal diseases are spreading and hospitals are getting crowded with patients, many gram panchayats in the State are struggling to ensure basic sanitation, leave aside executing other works, due to a severe shortage of funds.

Since February, after the term of sarpanches expired, the State government had appointed village secretaries for gram panchayats. However, many village secretaries are under extreme pressure to execute even routine works. At many places, spraying of disinfectants and sprinkling of bleaching powder is also turning into a challenge for panchayats, which once used to sweep performance awards at the national level.

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In many of the gram panchayats that are struggling due to lack of sufficient revenue generating sources, even the operating of tractors for garbage collection is getting affected as purchasing diesel was also a task, again, due to paucity of funds.

The panchayats had their hopes rekindled when the State government announced the Swachadanam-Pachadanam programme (the tweaked Congress version of Palle Prakruthi) from August 5 to 9. However, a majority of the gram panchayats did not get any financial assistance for the programme. Save for planting a few saplings and organizing a few events, there was no active involvement of elected public representatives from the ruling party as well. Many MLAs and other representatives participated in the programmes as a formality, while some preferred to skip them as local leaders were demanding funds for the gram panchayats.

Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister D Anasuya had announced that the State government allocated sufficient funds for gram panchayats. Chief Secretary A Santhi Kumari had also instructed Collectors to make elaborate arrangements for taking up different works under the Swachadanam – Pachadanam programme, which were to include construction of rain harvesting pits and sanitation among others.

On the contrary, village secretaries said many panchayats were not given funds for these activities. In many villages, village secretaries in association with the health department took up a few works with available resources.

“The plight of village secretaries is horrible. Many are being forced to spend their personal money for taking up different works. It is also unclear as to when the government would refund the money spent by them,” an office bearer of the Telangana Panchayat Secretaries Association said, adding that salaries for sanitation staff were pending for many months. The government had said it released Rs.350 crore to gram panchayats, but most of these funds went towards paying salaries of sanitation staff.

Given the scarcity of funds, how can village secretaries execute different civic works and ensure sanitation, he asked.