Suryapet: Former sarpanches stage shirtless protest over pending bills

Former sarpanches in Suryapet staged a shirtless protest outside the Collector’s Office, demanding clearance of development work bills pending for two years. They alleged that despite assurances before elections, the Congress government sidelined their concerns after coming to power.

Nalgonda: Demanding the State government clear their pending bills, which have remained unpaid for the past two years, former sarpanches staged a shirtless protest in front of the Collector’s Office in Suryapet on Monday.

The former sarpanches stated that they had taken up several development works in villages as per government instructions, but the bills pertaining to the works executed had not been cleared for two years.

They said that before the Assembly elections and the recent Gram Panchayat elections, the Congress government had assured them that the pending bills would be cleared. However, after coming to power, the issues of former sarpanches were being sidelined, they complained.

Several protesters stated that they had executed works by investing their personal money after securing loans from private lenders. Unable to bear the humiliation from lenders over their failure to repay the loans, a few former sarpanches had even died by taking their own lives, they said.