Uttam rues over diversion of municipal funds

Suryapet: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president and Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy has strongly condemned the misuse and diversion of funds meant for development of municipalities across the State.

Addressing the media persons after attending the Suryapet municipality general body meeting in municipal office on Saturday, Uttam said that he had recently got Rs 11 crore sanctioned from Central government for 400 KV substation in Suryapet. He said he was striving hard for the development of Suryapet. However, he alleged that the development was getting affected due to misuse and diversion of funds. He exhorted the municipal councilors of all parties to oppose the manner in which the District Collector was sanctioning the municipal funds in an arbitrary manner misusing Section 26 of Municipal Act, which was only to be used in emergencies.

He expressed deep concern over 'politicisation of administration' in Telangana and alleged that the development activities were not being carried out in a planned manner. Except for Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and his family members and a few ministers, the other elected public representatives were not getting due importance in their own constituencies. He said that the District Collectors were sanctioning funds in an arbitrary manner without following the rule book just to please their political bosses. He said that there was no transparency in release and spending of funds by the local administration and alleged that the public funds were being spent in a haphazard manner. He said that the local councillors or other elected representatives in the local bodies were not having a say in spending of public funds.

The TPCC chief alleged that neither the Chief Minister nor Municipal Administration Minister KT Rama Rao took measures to improve the functioning of municipalities. He said that CM KCR's only focus was to win civic polls by using all means, but he never cares about development of municipalities which remained starved of funds. He said that the BJP government at the Centre too neglected Telangana in release of funds for municipalities. Whatever little funds were sanctioned by the Centre were diverted indiscriminately by the State government, he alleged. Uttam said that the developmental activities came to a halt in a majority of municipalities in Telangana. Reddy exhorted the councillors of all political parties to fight for their rights and seek equal share in funds for their respective wards/divisions. He said that the common people would hold their respective councillor responsible for lack of development in their ward. Therefore, he said that the councillors should speak up against the diversion and misuse of public funds by the District Collectors at the instance of some ministers or the CMO. He also demanded that the general body meetings of municipalities should be held every month to review the progress of development works.

Uttam also informed that the Congress party has initiated the process to finalise the candidates for MLC elections for two Graduate Constituencies. He expressed confidence that the Congress party would win both the seats besides winning the Nagarjunasagar bypoll. Similarly, he said that the Congress party was all set to win the forthcoming Khammam and Warangal civic polls. He said that the Congress party was all set to make a strong comeback in next elections.