Sarpanches Association resolves to work for the defeat of YSRCP in ensuing elections

Sarpanches Association in Visakhapatnam fights for Panchayat Raj funds, demands inclusion of demands in election manifestos.

The Sarpanches Association has announced its decision to go to all households in the villages and tell the people about the diversion of Panchayat Raj funds for other purposes by the YSRCP government, which came in the way of their taking up development works in the villages.

AP Panchayat Raj Chamber vice-president Vanapalli Muthayala Rao has said that only parties that include the 16 demands of the association in their election manifesto will be supported. The association will work to defeat Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy in the ensuing general elections.

Announcing this at a media conference here on Wednesday, Sarpanches Association State president V. Lakshmi Mutyala Rao said this decision was taken as the State government had failed to heed their agitations conducted during the last three-and-a-half months. She said that the government was payable ₹4,000 crore arrears to the Panchayat Raj funds under a single head, for a total of ₹8,629 crore. Agitations were conducted at all district Collectorates seeking payment of arrears and 16 other demands.

Association district president Ch. Mutyala Rao said that there were 12,918 villages in the State. The village secretariat system, established by the YSRCP government in 2021, was a contravention of the Panchayat Raj system. He demanded the revival of powers to Sarpanches under Articles 73 and 74 of the Constitution.

He alleged that funds to the tune of ₹8,000 crore were diverted to the YSRCP government’s ‘Navaratnalu’ schemes. The lack of funds prevented the implementation of sanitation and street lighting in the villages, thereby causing problems for the people. The association would support only those political parties that assure that the demands of the sarpanches would be met.