Telangana BJP Chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar wrote to the Union Minister of Panchayati Raj Giriraj Singh alleging the Telangana government on the grounds of drawing money from the accounts of the Sarpanches without their knowledge and using the money for other purposes.
Sanjay requested the Union Minister to initiate steps against the government. He said, "I request you to initiate necessary action to protect the rights of the local bodies as per the 73 & 74 Amendments of the Constitution of India in Telangana."
Sanjay further alleged in the letter, "Government of Telangana is in the habit of diverting the funds allocated by Union Government for gram panchayats as well as other local bodies. In the recent past, I have also noticed that the MGNREGA funds are being diverted and utilised for other schemes of the state government."
BJP Chief of Telangana said, that he received representations from sarpanches from all parts of Telangana to take necessary steps for re-depositing the funds into their accounts.
Sanjay hurled multiple charges against the government for the misusing of the fund.
"Government of Telangana, misused the digital key of the bank accounts of sarpanches and withdrew the money without the knowledge of sarpanches and utilised the same for paying due power bills and also for advance payment of the bills. It is also reliably learnt that they have utilised the funds for clearing the old dues, which is against the rules," Sanjay wrote.
As per the Government of India guidelines, the 15th Finance Commission released the funds to Gram Panchayats in Telangana state a few days ago. As per the Panchayat Raj Act, sarpanches are entitled to draw the money and spend it for the welfare and other developmental activities in the respective gram panchayats, as mentioned in Sanjay's letter.
According to Sanjay's letter, as per the instructions of the Government of India, Telangana State Government opened special bank accounts in every gram panchayat in the name of sarpanch and upa-sarpanch, who are empowered to draw the money based on the resolutions of the gram panchayat committee.
The Government of India has been directly allocating and depositing funds to gram panchayats. As per instructions, 50% of the fund must be used to lay roads and the rest for welfare and maintenance activities.
As a part of instalments, all the gram panchayats in Telangana state have received funds from the Government of India, and the said fact has been intimated to the respective gram sarpanches, according to Sanjay.
But he charged the Panchayat officers and the government for misappropriating the funds.
( With inputs from ANI )
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