Karimnagar: Country progresses when villages develop

Karimnagar: Country could develop only when the villages are developed said Panchayati Raj Rural Development Department Principal Secretary Sandeep Kumar Sultania on Thursday.

He took part in Palle Pragati programme at Gattu Boothpur village of Gangadhar mandal in Choppadandi constituency in the district on Thursday. He said that the Chief Minister KCR, who felt that the development of the country was possible only when the villages were developed, had enacted the Panchayati Raj Act.

Sultania said one secretary has been appointed for each of 12,000 gram panchayats in the State and the district Collector has been given the power to fill the post of secretary if it becomes vacant for any reason.

He said that in the past, funds were given to gram panchayats for 6-10 months but now Rs 250 crore was being released to 12,000 gram panchayats in the State every month. Rs 2.50 crore has been allotted for construction of roads in each gram panchayat. Rs 1000 crore has been given to lay CC roads in the last three months.

It was the responsibility of the government to fund the villages and it was the responsibility of the people to keep the villages clean. The government has allocated Rs 7,000 crore under the Mana Ooru Mana Badi programme to provide better facilities in government schools, Sultania noted.

District Collector RV Karnan said that before the launch of the Palle Pragathi programme, people in the villages used to suffer from dengue and other viral fevers due to the unhygienic environment. Mosquitoes were eliminated in the villages due to the observance of dry days. Choppadandi legislator Sunke Ravi Shankar said that people should take note of what Telangana was like seven and a half years ago. KCR, the only Chief Minister who made the dream of a village self-government realised

Despite having lakhs of villages in the country, Telangana has received ten out of ten awards at the national level. On the occasion, the MLA said that Rs 5 lakh would be given for the construction of a women's society building in the village. Additional Collector Garima Agarwal, Karimnagar RDO Anand Kumar, Zilla Parishad CEO Priyanka, Rural Development Officer Srilatha, Zilla Panchayat Officer Veera Buchaiah and others were present.