Hyderabad: Demanding the clearance of pending bills, former sarpanches staged a shirtless protest in front of the collector’s office in Suryapet on Monday. Holding placards, they alleged that the state govt had not cleared their pending bills for the past two years. The former sarpanches said that they had taken up several development works in villages as per govt instructions using their personal funds, but the bills pertaining to the works executed had not been cleared for two years. They claimed that before the assembly elections and the recent gram panchayat polls, the govt had assured them that the pending bills would be cleared, but the issue remained unaddressed even today. “We borrowed money to complete the development works. Lenders are putting pressure on us to clear their dues,” they said.
