Hyderabad: Finding fault with Centre for reduction in Finance Commission allocations to Telangana State, Panchayat Raj Minister E Dayakar Rao said on Friday that if Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao permits, he would take up the issue with the Union Panchayat Raj Minister and seek more funds for the State.
The Central government allocated Rs.1360 crore to Telangana against the FC recommended Rs.1840 crore, reducing the allocations by nearly Rs.500 crore. The centre has yet again continued its discrimination towards Telangana in the allocations, the Minister said.
The Minister pointed out that Telangana State bagged a rich haul of 12 awards in the National Panchayat Awards 2021 (Appraisal year 2019-20) announced by the Union Panchayat Raj Ministry. As many as nine Gram Panchayats, two Mandal parishads and one Zilla Parishad have bagged awards in different categories in the Deendayal Upadhyay Panchayat Sashaktikaran Puraskar 2021.
“Along with awards and rewards, the Central Government should also extend the required financial assistance,” Dayakar Rao said.
The Minister complimented and felicitated the sarpanches, secretaries and officials of the award winning gram panchayat and mandal and zilla parishads at a programme here on Friday. Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said the Chief Minister launched Palle Pragati programme as a means to ensure development, besides sanitation in villages across the State. The programme was already yielding desired results and more efforts should be put in to make villages set examples for those in other States, he said.
“In the past, except for Gangadevipalli village, not many villages in the State had any recognition but the situation has improved a lot. Now, many villages are taking up different development programmes and drawing appreciation from all quarters,” he said.
The State Government has been giving top priority to rural development. Accordingly, in this budget too, Rs.500 crore was allocated to Mandal and Zilla Parishads. In addition to these funds, the government is regularly releasing Rs.308 crore every month to gram panchayats, he informed.
Later, all the Sarpanches, MPDOs, CEOs from award winning gram panchayats and mandal and zilla parishads were to taken to Pragathi Bhavan, where Chief Minister complimented the elected representatives and officials for winning the awards.
Panchayat Raj Secretary Sandeep Kumar Sultania and Panchayat Raj, Rural Employment Commissioner M Raghunandan Rao and other officials were present on the occasion.
Now you can get handpicked stories from Telangana Today onTelegrameveryday. Click the link to subscribe.