Telangana panchayats: Role models turn mere spectators
Once regular national award winners, Telangana local bodies are now struggling for funds under Congress rule
HYDERABAD: There was a time when gram panchayats and rural bodies in Telangana won multiple awards announced annually by the Centre under different categories and were considered to be role models. However, ever since the Congress took over, things have changed.
With no support at all from the State government, panchayats are plagued with several issues. There have been no sarpanches, no ZPTCs and MPTCs or municipal chairpersons in the State for over a year now, reflecting the sorry state of affairs. The delay in holding elections and ensuring sarpanches for panchayats is affecting the flow of funds from the Centre under different schemes. Former sarpanches have been staging protests demanding the State government to clear their long-pending bills for different works that were taken up during the previous government’s rule.
Accordingly, on the National Panchayat Raj Day on Thursday, only Mall Gram Panchayat in Rangareddy was ranked number one under the Atma Nirbhar Panchayat Special Award. The Ministry of Panchayati Raj institutionalises special category awards to recognise panchayats’ efforts in climate action and self-reliance.
In sharp contrast, the previous government had implemented Palle Pragathi programme exclusively for taking up different development programmes in panchayats across the State. Under the programme, a whopping Rs 13,528 crore was spent during the last 10 years on panchayats. For each of the 12,769 gram panchayats, a tractor, trolley and tanker were provided. Vaikuntadhamams, dumping yards, nurseries, Palle Prakruthi Vanams and Bruhat Palle Prakruthi Vanams were constructed across the State.
All these initiatives helped the gram panchayats excel at the national level annually. From 2015 to 2022, zilla parishads, mandals and gram panchayats won 79 awards under different categories. Telangana had bagged 12 awards in the National Panchayat Awards 2021 (appraisal year 2019-20). As many as nine gram panchayats, two mandal parishads and one zilla parishad bagged awards in different categories in the Deendayal Upadhyay Panchayat Sashaktikaran Puraskar 2021.
In 2020-21, 19 awards were won by the rural bodies at the national level. For the appraisal year 2021-22, gram panchayats won 13 awards under different categories. Again, in 2022, among the top 20 panchayats across the country, 19 were from Telangana and 10 panchayats featured in the top 10 rankings issued under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY).
Congress government’s promises vs reality
During the Assembly elections, the Congress had many promises for the welfare and development of rural bodies but hardly any have been delivered.
Exposing the same, Nayini Anurag Reddy, a public policy observer and entrepreneur, on X said: “On National Panchayati Raj Day, the question is, where is the raj of the panchayat? Promises vs reality under Congress government in Telangana…”
Full devolution of funds and responsibilities to local bodies was promised. On the contrary, failing to conduct elections, central government and finance commission stopped funds. Village secretaries were forced to spend their own money for executing works, he said.
Under MGNREGA, the workdays were promised to be increased to 150 days and daily wage to Rs.350. In the last financial year, the average wage per worker was just Rs.271. Leave aside 150 days, the government could not even provide 100 workdays, he pointed out.
Pensions were promised to former sarpanches, MPTC and ZPTC, services of newly appointed panchayat secretaries were to be regularized but they have not been done, he added.
