Very difficult to survive if funds are diverted: Panchayat Raj Chamber

Rangareddy: Panchayat Raj chamber president Chimpula Satyanarayana Reddy and general secretary Badepalli Siddhartha accused the State government of diverting the funds released to the Gram Panchayats by the Central government through the 15th Finance Commission. The Panchayat Raj chamber leaders Satyanarayana Reddy, Badepalli Siddhartha, Srisailam, Venkat and Ashok Rao submitted a petition to State Governor Tamilisai at the Raj Bhavan on Tuesday to investigate the matter and take action.

On the occasion, They said that the Centre had transferred Rs.3,500 crores to the Zilla Parishads, Mandal Parishads and Gram Panchayats of the state on 24th of last month (December). They claimed that the funds were diverted to the State treasury on the same day, even though it was a Christmas holiday. He said that the programme of diverting the funds coming from the centre has also been done in the past and if this happens in the future it will be difficult for the Panchayat Raj system to survive.

Earlier, the mining cess and registration stamp duty was going to the local bodies but in the new Panchayat Raj Act brought in 2018, amendments have been made so that these funds go to the government. They asked that this petition be sent to the Union Minister of Panchayat Raj. Satyanarayana Reddy, General Secretary Badepalli Siddhartha said that the Governor responded positively on this issue.

They also revealed that the Governor said that she was aware of the diversion of funds of Gram Panchayats in Telangana and had seen the media reports on this.