Rush To Clear Pending Bills As Tenure of Local Bodies Is Ending Shortly
There is an unusual political bonhomie across parties at meetings of municipalities and panchayats. Elected representatives are scrambling to get their pending bills, estimated to be ₹2,000 across districts, cleared.
Kurnool: Municipal and panchayat offices across several districts of the state have turned unusually busy over the past few days, with files moving swiftly through administrative channels.
The sudden flurry of activity is owing to the tenure of municipal governing bodies ending on March 17, while that of village sarpanches will conclude on April 2.
With the deadlines approaching, corporators, councillors, MPTCs and ZPTCs are making a last-minute push to get the pending bills cleared for development works undertaken in their areas during the past four-and-a-half years. Interestingly, leaders cutting across political party lines are joining hands to expedite clearance of files in municipalities and panchayats.
Political differences that dominated local bodies for the past two years appear to have taken a back seat, as financial interests are involved.
When the present Telugu Desam government came to power, over 90 per cent of local bodies — including panchayats and municipalities — had been under the control of YSR Congress. Later, several YSR Congress members joined the Telugu Desam Party.
In many instances, MLAs are reportedly acting as mediators between rival factions. For instance, in a municipality in Kurnool district that is under the control of YSR Congress, the local MLA belongs to the Telugu Desam Party. Observers say that some MLAs are strategically facilitating the clearance of pending bills in order to maintain political goodwill and working relations with local public representatives.
Works carried out for which bills have not been cleared relate from sanitation, drainage and street lighting to CC roads, rural roads under various schemes, and smart meter installations. Contractors and local representatives are pushing for clearance of bills as they fear that once special officers take charge after the expiry of their tenure, the process of clearing bills could take longer.
According to estimates, pending bills across districts are said to exceed ₹2,000 crore.
The rare display of unity among political rivals has left many surprised. “At this moment, the question is — are parties important or money,” a corporator quipped.
