Gram sabhas to make villages strong, self-reliant: Pawan

Vijayawada: Deputy Chief Minister K Pawan Kalyan on Thursday said the state government is conducting gram sabhas in 13,326 villages across the state on Friday to transform the village panchayats as self-reliant local bodies and to pass resolutions on implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) works worth Rs 4,500 crore.

He said the panchayats will take up 87 types of works to provide livelihood to the villagers under the NREGS scheme. Pawan spoke to the media on Thursday at his camp office in Mangalagiri and explained the objectives of gram sabhas.

He informed that 54 lakh families will be benefitted in the state due to implementation of NREGS works. For the first time in the history of India, gram sabhas are being conducted in 13,326 villages in a single day. The state government is working towards transforming village panchayats for making self-rule and self-reliance a reality. Stating that every village has its own identity, he said the state government will promote the local products like toys, handicrafts, textiles and encourage villagers to produce popular products and earn income.

He said the state government is also focusing on the social forestry using the plenty of land available in villages to grow trees and generate wealth.

The Deputy CM said the villagers will discuss various issues in the gram sabhas and draw plans for the development of villages. He urged youth and women to actively participate in the sabhas and make them a grand success. “The NDA parties have assured the people during the elections that transparent and clean rule will be provided to the people. Now as part of strengthening the village panchayats, we are conducting one day gram sabhas all over the state on Friday,” he explained.

Pawan said the state government has increased the allocation of grants to village panchayats for national festivals. Earlier Rs100 was given for minor panchayats and Rs 250 was sanctioned for major panchayats for conducting the festivals and now it has been increased to Rs10,000 for minor panchayat and Rs 25,000 for major panchayats.

Alleging that the previous YSRCP government had weakened the social audit, he made it clear that social audit will be implemented very strictly in the state. Pawan said the YSRCP government had neglected the Central government schemes like Jal Jeevan Mission and many irregularities were also committed in its implementation.