PM urged to release 15th Finance Commission funds directly to village panchayats
Akhila Bharat Panchayat Parishad national vice-president Dr Jasti Veeranjaneyulu and members of AP Panchayat Parishad submitting a memorandum to the officials in the Prime Minister's Office in New Delhi on Thursday
Vijayawada: A team of village sarpanches, headed by Dr Jasti Veeranjaneyulu, the national vice-president of Akhila Bharat Panchayat Parishad and State president of AP Panchayat Parishad, appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to release the second instalment of 15th Finance Commission funds, amounting to Rs 988 crore in the last financial year which were due to the village panchayats.
In a memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office and the office of the Finance Minister in New Delhi on Thursday, Dr Veeranjaneyulu recalled that there 13,344 village panchayats in Andhra Pradesh and all the panchayats are languishing due to paucity of funds. The State government did not release funds to the village panchayats, he pointed out.
Later addressing the media, Dr Veeranjaneyulu said that village panchayats are not in a position to undertake any development programmes in their villages due to paucity of funds. The Central government should release the funds directly for the benefit of village panchayats to allow them to undertake development works. The Central government did not release the funds of 15th Finance Commission in time and the State government did not release a single rupee from the 15th Finance Commission funds during the last 30 months. “The panchayats are not in a position to continue their existence,” he said.
Dr Veeranjaneyulu appealed to the Central government to release Rs 988 crore directly to the village panchayats and local bodies.
AP Panchayat Parishad vice-president Mullangi Ramakrishna Reddy lamented that at a time when the panchayats are virtually languishing due to the paucity of funds, the State government took away all the funds in the name of electricity bill arrears. The MNERGA funds were being spent without the knowledge or permission of the village sarpanches.
General secretary Kottapu Muni Reddy appealed to the State government to release 15th Finance Commission funds to help the panchayats survive in the present crisis.