Govt urged to withdraw payment order to GP on electricity bills

Member of the Legislative Council  Kota Srinivas Poojary said State government should immediately withdraw the order directing gram panchayats for payment of electric bills from the funds released under 13th Finance Commission.

Briefing reporters, he ridiculed that the State government is domineering and trying to curb the development activities taking place through rural local bodies.

He said usually the fund released under 13th Finance Commission is distributed among gram panchayats based on the number of people, which would be used for development activities.

The funds released would be around Rs 5 to Rs 10 lakh to each rural local body.
However, State government’s recent notification directing gram panchayat to open separate account for payment of bills from funds released under 13th Finance Commission is ridiculous.

This is injustice, as already gram panchayats have two separate accounts for the payments of power bills and also salaries of employees from funds released by the State government. He demanded that State government should not intervene and allow the gram panchayat to utilise the funds for development activities.

Poojary said gram panchayats should be charged with power tariff on par with house consumption rates. Rs 3.25 is charged per unit for drinking water and Rs 4.30 for street lights, while power tariff for house consumption is Rs 2.40 per unit.

He said around 3.5 crore electricity bills are pending to be paid from 5,629 gram
panchayats in the State.

He alleged that State government has also failed to offer 25 per cent rebate on full payment of bills for gram panchayats. There are decent numbers of gram panchayats that have paid bills completely, he added.

Poojary demanded that State government should permit gram panchayats to issue license for construction works and not wait until the enactment of bye-laws.

He said the development activities are stagnant in the past seven months and if the polls for gram panchayats are announced the development activities would be at standstill for another two months.

Nearly two lakh odd applications are pending before the gram panchayat in State.
Coming down heavily on State government decision for not supporting State Dharmik Parishath and District Dharmik Parishath, he said these bodies were introduced during BJP tenure to look into the administrative facets in as many as 34,500 temples and mutts that come under Endowment Department.

The administrative committee set up at State level and district level has been dissolved by the State government.

He said the endowment minister is the president and the Commissioner the secretary.
The nine members with no political background were part of the parishat.

However, members are not appointed. Deputy Commissioner would head the committee at district level.

He demanded that State government should immediately constitute both State and district Dharmik Parishaths. He said all programmes taken up under Endowment Department should be included in Sakala.