CM holds review meeting on Panchayat Raj Dept

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao instructed the concerned officials to make optimum utilization of the funds under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) for Telangana Ku Haritha Haram programme and for constructing Vykunta Dhamam (Crematoriums) in the villages.

The Chief Minister said that in addition to making use of MGNREGA funds, the funds allocated in the budget, the constituency development funds of MPs and MLAs put together should be used for village development programmes. He said that the budgetary allocation of the state government for development of the villages would be almost equal to the funds allotted to the state under MGNREGA and all these funds put together should be made use of. He said that works under MGNREGA are to be carried out under the supervision of village panchayats, where in top priority should be given to Haritha haram followed by construction of crematoriums. The MGNREGA funds used in the villages should ultimately lead to development of productive assets. He said that for every village there shall be BT roads.

KCR held a review meeting on Panchayat Raj and Rural Development at Pragathi Bhavan on Tuesday. Chief Advisor to Government Rajiv Sharma, Chief Secretary SK Joshi, MPs B. Vinod Kumar, Banda Prakash, MLAs DS Redya Naik, Balk Suman, Panchayat Raj Principal Secretary Vikas Raj, Commissioner Nitu Prasad, Additional PCCF Dobriel, CMO Secretaries Smita Sabarwal, Bhoopal Reddy, OSD Priyanka Verghese and others participated in the meeting.

“As a part of Telangana ku Harithaharam programme in the state, in all the 12,751 villages nurseries are to be established. In every village saplings are to be planted and protected. For this MGNREGA funds are to be utilized. For digging the pits, for watering and for other connected works these funds are to be utilized. Every paisa of MGNREGA shall be spent by gram panchayats meticulously and top priority shall be given to Harithaharam. Forest department will only provide the technical assistance and with this the nurseries are to be established. Sapling of the plants and protecting them shall be the responsibilities of village panchayats. Gram Panchayats shall collect indent from every farmer.” said the CM.

“In every village there shall be a Vykuntadhamam and the place must be finalized immediately. The place shall be either the government land or a donor land are to be brought from gram panchayat funds. In 11,412 villages which have a population of less than 3000 at the rate of one for each village and in 1300 villages where the population is more than 3000 at the rate of two for village, in all 14,012 crematoriums shall be constructed” said the CM.

“The government has taken a policy decision that there shall be a BT road for every village. Accordingly, 859 villages which have no BT road connectivity now shall be provided with BT roads. For this proposal are to be made immediately and works should be taken up.

The Chief Minister has instructed that senior officers shall make a surprise visit to inspect different types of works either with MGNREGA funds or otherwise. He said that the funds should not be misused and every paisa of MGNREGA should be spent in a proper way. He said that works should not be done for name sake and funds should not be swallowed. To see that the funds are properly utilized and works are carried out properly, the officers in 20 teams should separately conduct surprise visits in the villages.

KCR said that necessary instructions should go to all the gram panchayats on the following issues: Cleanliness of the village to be the top priority, all dormanted borewell to be filled, debris to be removed, dilapidated houses to be demolished, water logging areas to be filled so that there is no water stagnation etc. The CM said that MGNREG field assistants shall not be allowed to engage the labour without the consent of the Sarpanch.