Metro India News | hyderabad

CPI national executive member Chada Venkata Reddy today demanded that the State government hold elections for local bodies immediately and release the frozen funds in Gram Panchayats. He  said due to the freezing of the funds  in Gram Panchayats, there was no way to pay salaries to the staff working in the Gram Panchayats.

He also said due to the non-holding of mandatory elections for the Gram Panchayats, Municipalities, Mandal and Zilla Parishads, they would lose their autonomy and would have to depend on the State government. He said the development work bills of former sarpanches, who worked in the past, were  still pending and added that they should be released immediately.

Noting that the sarpanches  are saying that they will go on a dharna for the clearance of the pending bills, Chada said if the villages are to be developed as the strong  branches of the country as Mahatma Gandhi said, elections should be held immediately.

“In 1992, the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi brought constitutional amendments 73 and 74 with the intention of releasing the funds directly to local bodies and making elections mandatory once every five years, the  elections should be held immediately,” Chada Venkata Reddy said.