Hyderabad: The Congress govt’s proposal to revert to the old system of giving joint cheque power to sarpanches and the govt-appointed panchayat secretaries is being opposed by the upa sarpanches who claimed that they would lose their political weight in the villages.They want the joint cheque power to be continued with sarpanches and upa sarpanches, a system that was brought into implementation by the previous BRS govt. The new Panchayat Raj Act passed in 2018 gave joint cheque signing power to the upa sarpanches along with sarpanches. Earlier, the joint cheque signing power was with panchayat secretaries along with sarpanches.
“The news that the govt is going to take away cheque signing power from us has already spread in villages. There is a threat of us being called as “dummy upa sarpanches”. Many of the candidates had sacrificed the ticket to contest sarpanch election and accepted to contest for upa sarpanch seat because of joint cheque signing power. It is a mark of respect for us,” said Telangana Upa Sarpanches Forum president Botla Kartheek.Many upa sarpanches also staged a dharna at Indira Park demanding that the govt continue joint cheque signing power with upa sarpanches.They are also demanding that the govt include the names of upa sarpanches on the plaques unveiled during inaugurations or foundation stone laying for various development works in villages. Presently, the names of sarpanch and above this rank are included on the plaque.Upa sarpanches said many of them had spent more money than sarpanches and some of them even sponsored the sarpanch candidates in elections, keeping in view that there was joint cheque signing power. “If the govt does not withdraw its proposal, we will take the support of thousands of ward members, who elected us as upa sarpanches., to launch protest programmes against the govt,” said an upa sarpanch.However, officials maintained that the proposal to revert to the old system of giving joint cheque power to sarpanches and panchayat secretaries was mooted following complaints of corruption and delays in taking up development works.Sources in the panchayat raj department told TOI that many development works were getting delayed due to differences between upa sarpanches and sarpanches belonging to different political parties or castes. Instances were reported that cheques were not signed by upa sarpanch where the sarpanch was either from the SC or ST community and the upa sarpanch from other communities.A senior official in the panchayat raj department said though there is a proposal to give joint cheque signing power to the panchayat secretaries along with sarpanch, the state cabinet will take a final decision on it.
