Scrap MPTCs, ZPTCs

​Vijayawada: The Telugu Desam government seeks the NDA government at the Centre to bring in radical changes in the three-tier Panchayat Raj system triggering an uproar among the Opposition circles.

Even as the state government has sent in a letter to the Centre recommending phasing-out of the MPTCs and ZPTCs, the Opposition YSRC and the Congress raised a voice of protest against the move. In the letter dispatched on October 12, the state government sought to prune the PR system by scrapping the MPTCs and the ZPTCs.

If the proposal becomes a reality, 10,148 Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency (MPTC) posts and 660 Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) posts will cease to exist in Andhra Pradesh. ZPTC members are elected to the Zilla Parishad while the MPTC members to the mandal parishads.

According to the letter released to the media, the government feels that the ZPTC and MPTCs do not have any relevance in the functioning of grassroots democracy at the mandal and zilla parishad levels. As a substitute, it is proposed to replace the MPTCs with the sarpanches and ZPTCs with Mandal Parishad Presidents in election of MPPs and ZP chairpersons in an indirect method respectively.

Similarly, sarpanches will play the role of MPTCs and MPPs that of ZPTCs in representing the respective elected bodies at the mandal and district level.

The two layers of the MPTCs and ZPTCs came into existence in the PR setup following the 73rd amendment of the Constitution piloted by former Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi who called the local bodies as ‘little republics’ of Indian democracy.

Accordingly, Central funds have been directly routed to the local bodies bypassing the state governments in line with the constitutional amendment.

However, the present Telugu Desam government is of the opinion that the involvement of MPTCs and ZPTCs along with the sarpanches and MPPs in the governance of PR system results in overlapping of functions.

However, it seeks to retain the existing three-tier structure. Former minister and YSRCP leader Dharmana Prasada Rao said the government’s recommendation, if becomes a reality, will affect fair representation to the gram panchayats with varying demographic profiles.

When population of each gram panchayat ranges from 500 to even 30,000, sarpanches representing minor panchayts will call the tunes with an active support from the ruling party. He called for de-limitation of gram panchayats as is the case being lobbied by the state government with the Centre with regard to the Assembly constituencies to ensure proportionate representation system in a true spirit even at the grassroots level.

If the delimitation is effected in the PR set up, minor panchayats can be converted into major panchayats enabling all the panchayats to have an equal say in decision making and delegation of funds, he contended.

PCC president N Raghuveera Reddy accused Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu of diluting the PR spirit and letting the panchayats playing the second fiddle to his brainchild programme of Janmabhoomi.