Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan checks in to set things right

Hyderabad: The active intervention of Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan has set the things right in the functioning of elected local bodies in the state. Following her intervention, Panchayat Raj Commissioner M Raghunadan Rao issued orders and instructed all District Collectors to see that the spouses or relatives of the elected members do not attend the official meetings or interfere in the work of gram panchayats.

The Governor was flooded with bundles of complaints from civil society activists and others against the participation of husbands or sons of women elected members in the regular official meetings conducted in the gram panchayats. The complainants also raised serious doubts on the misuse of funds meant for village development by the close relatives of women members. The allegations of influencing the decisions in the official meetings and diversion of funds by relatives of illiterate representatives were also noticed in many local bodies in the state.

Taking serious note of the issue, the Governor forwarded all the complaints to Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and the State Panchayat Raj department and sought an explanation. She wanted to know as to why the government was not stopping the influence of spouses of the elected members in the functioning of panchayats. She also questioned whether the government was aware of the activities in the functioning of panchayats. This de facto functioning of relatives of women members, she felt, was against the spirit of the Constitution and goes against the purpose of empowering women in the villages and ensure their active participation in the local administration. Continued on Page 5