Warangal: With the State government’s commitment to the development of the villages and the economic condition of the rural folk, villages are witnessing massive development in many spheres.
Be it the construction of the internal roads or link roads connecting villages and other facilities like the development of ‘Vaikuntadhamams’ (graveyards) or waste segregation sheds or ‘Palle Prakruthi Vanams’ (village natural parks) or soaking pits, the village infrastructure is witnessing major boost under different schemes including the ‘Palle Pragathi’ scheme.
“While 12,738 Vaikuntadhamams were sanctioned with Rs 1,555.64 crore, works of 12,673 were taken up so far and fifty per cent of them were completed,” according to Minister for Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Errabelli Dayakar Rao.
Speaking to ‘Telangana Today’, he said that 12,730 waste segregation sheds with compost pits had been sanctioned at an estimated cost of Rs 319.13 crore and construction of the 12,655 of them were already taken up. “On the other hand, the government sanctioned 17.64 lakh soaking pits costing Rs 789.23 crore. As of now, works of the 5.28 lakh pits were taken up,” he said and added that works for the development of 18,329 ‘Palle Prakrithi Vanams’ were started.
As the ‘Palle Prakruthi Vanam’ programme is aimed at increasing the green cover in every village and providing lung space, 190.66 lakhs of saplings were planted at these parks, which are being developed on the Yadadri forest model (popularly known as Miyawaki).
As the per new Panchayat Raj Act, four committees – works committee, streetlight committee, green cover committee and sanitation committee- were formed to monitor the development works in 12,751 villages of the State.
“Earlier, there were only 8,690 villages in the State, but the TRS government led by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has made 3,146 hamlets (tribal thandas) into Gram Panchayats and appointed 9,355 village secretaries at one go for better administration. We have also increased the monthly wage to Rs 8,500 per month for the staff besides providing free insurance cover of Rs two lakh to each,” the Minister explained.
The State government is releasing Rs 308 crore per month to the local bodies. While 85 per cent of the 15th finance commission funds are given to the GPs, 10 per cent is given to the Mandal Parishads and five per cent to the Zilla Parishads.
“The government sanctioned Rs 968.57 crore grants to the Panchayat Raj institutions in 2017-18, Rs 1,155.15 crore in 2018-19, Rs 2,400.76 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 3,756.20 crore in 2020-21 fiscal year,” the Minister said. The State government has provided Rs 1,140 crore loans under Stree Nidhi. “By the end of March 2021, we will offer Rs 1,260 crore to reach the target of Rs 2,400 crore for this financial year,” Rao added. In addition to this, Rs 10,267.57 crore loans through the bank linkage were given to 3,12,863 Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in 2020-21. “The government also provided Rs 6,190.26 crore to 1,81,389 SHGs under ‘general loans’ this year. Considering the pandemic situation caused by Covid-19, Rs 682.33 crore ‘Covid loans’ were given to 1,26,550 SHGs.
Thanking the State government for giving top priority to the villages through the Palle Pragathi programmes, Kadem Yakaiah, Sarpanch of Ammapuram village of Thorrur mandal of Mahabubabad district said that their village had got 80 per cent of the internal roads. “We are constructing the village natural park and segregation sheds at the village,” he added. It is said that the government had taken up construction of the CC roads in the villages with Rs 324.77 crore under the MGNREGS.