Telangana: Sarpanches and other public representatives not paid for months

Hyderabad: Sarpanches and other public representatives in local bodies have not been paid salaries for months due to paucity of funds. The salary arrears range from three to six months.

The state government directed Panchayat Raj and rural development department to clear salary arrears at the earliest. PR&RD minister Jupally Krishna Rao on Thursday met senior officials to discuss the issue.

Officials brought to the notice of the minister that the salary arrears were because of the Centre’s failure to release Rs 900 crore recommended by the 14th Finance Commission. The minister asked officials to pursue the case with Centre for the early release of funds.

Though the TS government hiked salaries for sarpanches, MPTCs, ZPTCs etc. in March 2015, it failed to pay them every month.

Arrears had accumulated between April-November 2015. But in December 2015, the government cleared some arrears due to MLC elections then in which sarpanches, ZPTCs, MPTCs were the voters. After the TRS won a majority of the MLC seats, the same situation has repeated with salary arrears mounting from January 2016.

The TS government had hiked salaries for sarpanches from Rs 1,500 to Rs 5,000 per month, ZPTCS from Rs 2,250 to Rs 10,000, mandal president from Rs 1,500 to Rs 10,000, MPTCs from Rs 750 to Rs 5,000 and ZP chairperson from Rs 7,500 to Rs 1 lakh.