Palle Pragathi limps over funds paucity

Nalgonda: Sarpanches in the erstwhile Nalgonda district are turning desperate as the wait gets longer for funds under the Palle Pragathi programme. The first quarter of 2023-2024 financial year is over, yet the government has yet to release funds to gram panchayats for taking up even basic vital services such as sanitation and street lighting. They are hard put to answer to the demands made on them by their constituents. Their predicament is discernible as they could not even protest as it is their own government.

There are over 1,500 villages across the erstwhile Nalgonda district. Save for making fervent appeals to the state government, the sarpanches remain helpless to even provide for salaries of staff, vehicle maintenance, lights, sanitation, public water supply, drains, and road repairs etc. At present, they are heavily reliant on monthly funds sanctioned by both central and state finance corporations. Even those Good Samaritan sarpanches who took up public activities, spending money from their own pockets, are now in a piquant situation as the inordinate delay is not only earning them public wrath but also pushing them into financial crises. Some of them borrowed money at high-interest rates ranging from Rs 2 to Rs 3.

Timely disbursement of Palle Pragathi funds is critical to empowering the gram panchayats and propelling rural development forward. The situation of sarpanches is same under the BRS rule across the state.