PNS | Vijayawada
TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu said that panchayats have special powers while sarpanches, MPTCs and ZPTCs are crucial in the system like the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister and the Constitution has accorded special powers to panchayats too.
Addressing a meeting on the panchayat system in the State, Chandrababu Naidu said that sarpanches get due respect only during the TDP regime. Calling upon the sarpanches to fight for their rights, including the allocation of funds, Naidu said that the Chief Minister, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, should run away from the State with the serious struggle by the sarpanches.
Stating that the country has a three-tier system in which the Center performs its duties while the State Government looks after the administration and the panchayats ruled by sarpanches should govern themselves. “If the self-administration of the panchayats is so strong the villages will develop fast and the great Mahatma Gandhi had advocated panchayats as the foundation for the whole system.
Naidu recalled that in his capacity as the chief minister he has given special powers to sarpanches in 2002, and that the party leader, Babu Rajendra Prasad, has been fighting for long for the rights of the sarpanches. Of the five crore population in the State, 3.5 crore are living in rural areas, he said and added that 12,920 panchayats have been set up with sarpanches for these people.
CM Jagan Mohan Reddy has totally undermined such a great panchayat system, besides taking away their special powers, even the funds that are supposed to be utilised for the development of their villages have been diverted and being misused, he said and added that the TDP government had allocated funds for panchayats and encouraged the development of the rural areas.
