Telangana Sarpanches Association threatens to boycott panchayat elections if bills not cleared

Many Sarpanches had executed development works in their panchayat limits by spending personal money and through loans secured from private lenders at high interest rates

Hyderabad: The Telangana Sarpanches Association has yet again demanded the State government to clear all the pending bills of the Sarpanches and then conduct the gram panchayat elections.

Former Sarpanches have been making appeals to clear the pending bills for the different development works taken up by them in their respective panchayat limits from 2019 to 2024.

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The Sarpanches Association has also threatened that if the State government conducts the Panchayat elections without clearing the bills, the former Sarpanches would oppose the elections.

The former Sarpanches said they would continue their agitation and protests irrespective of the cases booked against them by the State government. Many Sarpanches had executed development works by spending personal money and through loans secured from private lenders at high interest rates.

It’s been one year since the Congress government came to power in the State and yet the pending bills were not cleared.

Lenders were exerting pressure on the sarpanches to clear their debts, said the Telangana Sarpanches Association Joint Action Committee in a letter to the State government on Tuesday.

Unable to bear the humiliation and pressure, many sarpanches had committed suicide, the joint action committee said.

The sarpanches also demanded that the caste survey should be completed comprehensively. Based on the survey, reservations should be finalised and only then elections should be conducted, the joint action committee demanded.