BJP submits memorandum over the plight of MPTCs, ZPTCs

HYDERABAD: The Telangana unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has urged Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to ensure that the State Government cares for the sarpanches of village panchayats and elected representatives of other local bodies.

The BJP delegation, led by president of the State unit Bandi Sanjay Kumar, called on the Governor on Wednesday and explained to her the plight of the sarpanches, MPTCs, and other local government representatives in Telangana.

"The Government of Telangana has been neglecting the gram panchayats and the elected local government representatives such as sarpanches, MPTCs, ZPTCs, who are being subjected to humiliation. It is unfortunate that the village sarpanches do not get bare minimum respect from the heads of the respective district administrations, nor would anyone listen or respond to their requests and grievances," the BJP said in the memorandum submitted to the Governor.

"In every district, special officers, MDOs, and MPOs have been appointed to assist and oversee the developmental activities in the villages. At the behest of the government, Sarpanches have undertaken a slew of developmental activities, tapping personal resources. The works have been completed, but the sanctioned and approved amounts haven't been released. Sarpanches, who come from middle-class and lower-middle-class families, have been facing problems due to this situation", added the BJP.

Whenever the government announced a new program, Collectors make the Sarpanches execute the work with the promise that the expenditure that they incurred would be reimbursed. But they failed to keep the promise and no reimbursement was made. As a cumulative impact of this situation, the sarpanches were facing problems unable to meet even the monthly recurrent expenditure such as salaries to the staff, diesel bills, current bills, tractor EMI, etc. While the Union Government wanted to strengthen the villages and the public representatives, the state government is robbing them of their constitutional rights.

MP Soyam Bapu Rao, Ex-MLC N. Ramchander Rao, Ex.Chairman, former Legislative Council chairman T Swamy Goud, and others were part of the delegation.