Panchayat Raj polls force leaders to hunt revenue-rich villages

Mahbubnagar: With Panchayat election notification already released on January 7, the leaders are now eyeing to contest from only those panchayats which are having adequate economic resources and looking to contest for Sarpanch posts only from those villages and hamlets which are near and around the national highways in Mahbubnagar district. 

At present, there are two major national highways viz., Hyderabad-Bengaluru NH-44 stretching 110 kilometres and NH-167 stretching from Jadcherla to Raichur, another 105 kilometres.

The villages surrounding these highways are considered to be highly income-rich as the land in these villages which is attached to the national highways is in high demand due to real estate boom.  

Along these two highways, as many as 40 villages have become the most sought after villages for the leaders. Particularly along NH-44, there are large numbers of villages’ stretching from Balanagar to Alampur crossroad in Mahbubnagar district.

The demand for land in Balanagar mandal is costing more than one crore per acre and if it attached to national highway, the demand is set to rise further. With the market rate for the lands in the villages along highways high, the revenue earned for those GPs is also high and thus the leaders are leaving no stone unturned to ensure they contest from the villages attached to the highways.

“In our village there is a very heavy competition for the Sarpanch elections. There are as many as 15 people who are in the fray and are ready to spend any amount for the upcoming elections,” said Nitish Reddy, a resident of Macharam Village, while referring to the panchayat elections in Macharam village of Jadcherla mandal which is attached to NH-44. 

Another national High way NH-167 which passes from district headquarter of Mahbubnagar connects Jadcherla at NH-44 to Krishna mandal which is the last border mandal in Mahbubnagar.  Particularly, the villages in and around Jadcherla mandal are surrounded by pharmaceutical companies and other industries. These companies are acting as income providers for the gram panchayats. Moreover, these companies also help the leaders get liberal funds under their corporate social responsibility scheme. 

In view of the high income source from the villages attached to NHs, the leaders in villages under Balanagar, Jadcherla, Rajapur are leaving no stone unturned to ensure they contest the elections and win them too. However in most other villages, there is not so much competition and in majority of them there are possibilities of candidates getting elected unanimously.