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Sorry state of sarpanchs
Drinking water scarcity has gripped villages in Telangana with panchayats not having access to funds released as per the guidelines of the 14th Finance Commission to ease the problem. This piquant situation arose because the state government, after receipt of funds from the Centre, has transferred to personal deposit (PD) accounts of the secretaries of the panchayats as proof of transferring the f
Hyderabad: Drinking water scarcity has gripped villages in Telangana with panchayats not having access to funds released as per the guidelines of the 14th Finance Commission to ease the problem. This piquant situation arose because the state government, after receipt of funds from the Centre, has transferred to personal deposit (PD) accounts of the secretaries of the panchayats as proof of transferring the funds to panchayats.
But, the officials said, after the transfer, the funds are being diverted to the state government again since the funds are in the official account of the panchayat secretary who is a government officer. The sarpanchs of the villages are angry with the ‘mischief’ of the state government showing that the funds have been released but in reality not keeping any funds at their disposal. The sarpanches are not able to dig new borewells, fix water tankers and repair the defunct motors.
Karimnagar District Sarpanchs Association president Anthati Annaiah Goud told The Hans India that there was no balance in the accounts of the gram panchayats. The funds being released by the Centre have been taken back by the state government from the PD accounts of the secretaries.
He said that when they have taken the issue to the notice of the Commissioner of Panchayat Raj and district Panchayat Raj Officer, there was no response. The officials were not responding to the requests of the Sarpanchs on release of funds. As the summer reached the peak, thousands of villages of the state have been facing acute shortage of drinking water.
In some villages, the borewells, through which drinking water is drawn, have gone dry. In other villages the motors of the borewells have failed due to heavy pressure. In a few villages, the water table has gone down drastically. Though the government is supposed to provide funds to the villages to overcome the drinking water shortage problem in summer, this year the money was not allocated and not released.
The Sarpanchs were told to meet the expenses of emergency water supply arrangements from the funds released as per the guidelines of the 14th Finance Commission. However, as no money is kept at their disposal, the Sarpanchs were unable to make alternative water supply arrangements.
A sarpanch has said that even the government did not pay the amounts being spent in the previous year for making alternative water supply in villages. Each sarpanch has spent Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh to dig new borewells, to hire agriculture borewells and to arrange tankers.
