New panchayats likely to be delayed

Hyderabad: Creation of new gram panchayats in the State may be delayed by two months as proposals from a few districts are yet to reach the government due to the incompletion of formal procedures.

The government has extended the time for submission of proposals and told the districts which have been lagging behind to complete the activity by the end of this month. The district officials have taken public hearings on new panchayats and elicited opinions of the local leaders.

As per the schedule decided during the Collectors’ conference, the proposals for the new panchayats should have been submitted by January 25. However, proposals from about 10 districts are yet reach the government.

The officials of the districts have been told to identify the villages with more than 500 population, 1.5 kms away from the existing panchayat office, economically viable villages and Lambada tandas for creating new panchayats.

The Revenue Department officials have been asked to prepare the survey numbers in the proposed new villages and the Land Survey officials were told to prepare the maps of them with boundaries. Officials of about 20 districts have prepared the list of new panchayats which could be formed as per the guidelines and sent them to the government.

The government would examine the proposals and would issue notifications constituting the new villages. The process of issuing notification was supposed to begin in February.

However, as the proposals from all the districts have not reached, the government may delay issuing notifications. As many as two months delay may take place and formation of new panchayats may be completed in April.

The official sources said the heads of various departments who had to examine the proposals were now busy with the Budget session of the Assembly. They have been preparing the budget proposals of their departments and may not have enough time to examine the proposals in February.

The Budget session of the Assembly would begin in the second week of March and would continue till the end of the month. The government may not take the risk of issuing the notifications on formation of new villages during the session as any error would lead to an embarrassment to the government in the Assembly.

On the other hand, the government is not keen on advancing the elections to the panchayats and it may allow conducting them as per the schedule of the Telangana State Election Commission. The Commission has proposed conducting the elections in May.

This would give the government required time to complete the formation of new panchayats, in dividing the wards, finalising the reservations and other formalities. The government will recommend conducting of elections in them as soon as they are formed, according to the sources.