Hanumakonda : No dearth of funds for GPs, assures Errabelli

Hanumakonda : Telangana is the only State in the country that is providing adequate funds for the development of rural areas, Minister for Panchayat Raj Errabelli Dayakar Rao said.

Addressing mandal praja parishad presidents of the erstwhile Warangal district here on Monday, he recalled Mahatma Gandhi's quote that "The future of India lies in its villages," and said that this is exactly the TRS government led by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao was doing.

"Telangana Panchayat Raj Act 2018 introduced by TRS government is one such attempt to develop rural areas. There is no dearth of funds as the government is releasing a grant of Rs 227.50 crore every month to the local bodies.

Of this, the gram panchayats are getting Rs 210.44 crore, mandal parishads Rs 11.41 crore and zilla parishads Rs 5.65 crore. This is the model of development conceived by the Chief Minister," Errabelli said.

So far, the State has released a grant of Rs 6,955 crore to local bodies since 2019 September. The CM allocated a budget of Rs 251 crore to the ZPs and Rs 249 crore to the mandal parishads in the 2021-22 financial year, he said.

The government has achieved its target especially ensuring greenery and cleanliness besides providing basic amenities to all gram panchayats in the four phases of Palle Pragathi programme.

It also increased honorarium of the people's representatives of the local bodies, the Minister said. MLC Pochampally Srinivas Reddy and MPTCs were among others present.