State totally neglected to develop gram panchayats: TGV

Kurnool: Former Rajya Sabha member T G Venkatesh came down heavily on the ruling YSR Congress party for misusing the Central government funds by diverting them for other works.

He said the Centre has sanctioned Rs 7,300 crore for the development of the gram panchayats which were not used for its purpose.

Addressing the gathering at the dharna staged at Krishnadevaraya Circle here on Thursday, Venkatesh said that 80 percent of the population comes from rural areas and the villages are the backbone to the country. Considering this, the Central government has sanctioned Rs 7,300 crore for developing the rural villages. However, the YSR Congress party, instead of utilising the funds for the development, has misused them for other purposes. The Centre, apart from the sanctioning funds, has also sanctioned special grants for construction of bathrooms, classrooms in schools, said TG Venkatesh.

He said the Centre has sanctioned funds on a larger scale to Andhra Pradesh state. When asked about what development works were taken up with the allocated funds, there is no proper response from the state government, he pointed out.

If the misusing of funds goes on, then a situation will arise to stop allocation of funds to the state government, Venkatesh stated and alleged that the government has utilized the funds for winning the gram panchayat elections and after winning it has totally neglected them in developing on all fronts.

Venkatesh also alleged that the sarpanches have no power and the government kept sarpanches, MPTCs and ZPTCs in idle. He said the YSRC government will face serious consequences in this regard and called upon the sarpanches, ZPTCs, MPTCs and people to join hands to send the YSRCP home. If the people do not realise this, they will again face the same hardships for another five years, if the YSRC government is elected to power, he warned.

The former MP said that the BJP and Jana Sena would jointly contest in the ensuing elections.