Centre releasing funds to local bodies directly is a petty practice: KCR

Hyderabad: Irked over the Central government releasing funds directly to rural local bodies surpassing the State governments for implementing certain programmes, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao felt that the Centre's actions cannot be justified as it indicated that the Centre does not trust the States.

CM KCR was referring to the Central programmes like Jawahar Rozgar Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and others where the Central government releases funds directly to the rural local bodies for implementing them. He termed the move by Centre as a petty practice and stated that all the Prime Ministers since the regime of Rajiv Gandhi till date, followed this with faith in the three-tier system of Panchayat Raj.

During a preparatory meeting at Pragathi Bhavan on Wednesday ahead of the launch of fresh installment of Palla Pragathi and Pattana Pragathi programmes from May 20, KCR stated that only the Telangana are aware of the specific conditions and needs in its jurisdiction. He felt that since the 75th year of Indian independence, the Central government failed to address basic issues like drinking and irrigation water supply, power supply, education and health infrastructure which are plaguing the villages.

Instead, the Centre is indulging in petty things and in the process, overstepping the rights and responsibilities of the States. Hence, there has been no major progress on various fronts to realise the aspirations of the people, he added.

Ministers, Mayors, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, District Collectors and other officials participated in the meeting.