Release pending funds to villages immediately: BJPLP leader

Hyderabad: BJP Legislative Party leader Aleti Maheshwar Reddy demanded Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy to send his ministers to Palle Bata to take stock of the financial distress faced by the village panchayats in the State.

Addressing the media on Monday, he said that fund crunch and non-payment of salaries to the multipurpose workers and sanitation staff has rendered village panchayats non-functional. The BJPLP leader warned of launching a protest if the state government fails to resolve the problems faced by the village panchayats and its staff. The BJP leader criticised the State government for releasing funds to the big contractors but neglecting the release of pending dues and finance commission funds to the villages. He alleged that the talk of the town is that funds are released to those who pay a 10 per cent cut. Funds for the pending works done are not released as the former sarpanches and small-time contractors could not pay the commission, he said.

He demanded the State government immediately release the pending salaries of the multipurpose workers and outsourcing employees, besides clearing the pending honorariums for sarpanches, MPTCs and ZPTCs, and clearance of bills pending against the works executed by the former village heads. Maheshwar Reddy said that the situation in the village development has already taken a beating, and the village could not meet even the day-to-day expenditures. To address these problems, he demanded the immediate release of pending state Finance Commission funds and the on-time release of funds to the villages from the current financial year. The BJPLP Leader said that his party will have to resort to direct agitation if the demands are not resolved within seven days.