Telangana Govt Restores Cheque Powers to Upa Sarpanchas
The panchayat raj department on Tuesday replaced ‘panchayat secretary’ with ‘upa sarpanch’ in the fresh circular
Hyderabad: The state government has issued a fresh memo continuing joint cheque powers to upa sarpanchas of newly formed gram panchayats, with partial modifications to the earlier orders released on December 22.
In line with Union ministry of finance guidelines for release and utilisation of grants recommended by the 15th Finance Commission for rural local bodies, the commissioner of panchayat raj and rural employment issued the instructions.
However, in the clause relating to digital signature certificates (DSC), which require a two-tier digital approval for payments, the circular had earlier failed to cite "upa sarpanch", instead mentioning the panchayat secretary/mandal parishad development officer as the voucher preparer.
Correcting the error, the panchayat raj department on Tuesday replaced ‘panchayat secretary’ with ‘upa sarpanch’ in the fresh circular. “The department has issued a memo continuing the joint cheque-signing power for sarpanches and deputy sarpanches, as was the practice earlier. The mistake in the previous circular has now been rectified,” official sources clarified.
