The opening of all the new gram panchayat offices in the four districts constituting erstwhile undivided Adilabad was a smooth affair, except for the opposition from Adivasis of Venkatapur and Mallapur, on Thursday.
At Venkatapur in Dandepally of Mancherial district, villagers under the banner of Adivasi Sena raised slogans and demanded the officials to divulge the reasons for bifurcating the existing gram panchayat and forming the new Vandurguda gram panchayat, which resulted in division of Adivasi population. “We also want to know if the exercise was done keeping in mind the Provisions of Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act,” said Sena president for old Adilabad district, Kova Doulath Rao as he led the group of aboriginal tribes in refusing officials to open the new office.
At Mallapur in Sirikonda mandal of Adilabad district, the villagers accepted officials working from the place but did not allow them to open an office formally. They demanded that their village be realigned with Indervelli mandal before opening the office.
Meanwhile, Adilabad Collector D. Divya participated in inauguration of the new gram panchayat office at Ankapur in Adilabad rural mandal. The district has 243 old and 224 new GPs.
At Nirmal, Collector M. Prashanthi participated in opening of the Kalvatanda GP in Dilawarpur mandal. The district has 227 old and 159 new GPs.
In Mancherial 115 new GPs were opened while 162 were inaugurated in Kumram Bheem Asifabad district.
Asifabad MLA Kova Laxmi inaugurated the newly-formed Asifabad Municipality.
‘Violation of protocol’
Khammam Special Correspondent: The opening of the new gram panchayat (GP) office at Sitanagaram in Bonakal mandal by the State Seed Development Corporation Chairman Kondabala Koteswara Rao on Thursday kicked up a row with the Madhira MLA M. B. Vikramarka charging the former with inaugurating the GP office in brazen violation of protocol.
The incident also triggered condemnation from the elected representatives concerned of the CPI (M) who later staged a protest against alleged breach of protocol.
Taking strong objection to the opening of the GP office even before their arrival, the Mandal Parishad President Ch Nageswara Rao and the ZPTC member B. Konda of the CPI (M) protested against the move terming it as a “reprehensible act” undermining the democratic values.
As per the protocol, the MPP should inaugurate the GP office, Mr. Konda contended, deploring that the opening ceremony was held hurriedly without even the presence of the MPP.
Mr Vikramarka, the working president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee, said the village falls under the Madhira Assembly constituency represented by him.
Mr Koteswara Rao is not an elected representative and the way he inaugurated the GP office along with the ruling TRS leaders bypassing the elected representatives was an undemocratic act, he charged.
I will take up the issue with the higher officials concerned in Hyderabad to seek action against those responsible for the gross violation of protocol, he said.
When contacted, Mr. Koteswara Rao denied charges of violation of protocol against him. “I had come to the venue of the inaugural ceremony in time and followed the schedule as fixed by the mandal officials concerned,” he said, adding that some politicians were trying to stir up a controversy.
Festive mood
Sangareddy Special Correspondent: The new panchayats were established with much fanfare on Thursday across the district. There is a festive mood in all villages. MLA Chinta Prabhakar and Collector Vasam Venakteswarlu participated in these programmes.
In the erstwhile Medak district 449 new panchayats and eight municipalities were established. Out of that 190 panchayats and four municipalities are in Sangareddy district followed by 157 panchayats and three municipalities in Medak district and 102 panchayats and one municipality in Siddipet district.
Special officers’ rule
Nizamabad Special Correspondent writes: Special officers’ rule began at the 1,056 gram panchayats, both old and new, in the erstwhile undivided district today.
Special officers from office superintendents for minor panchayats to district-level officers for major panchayats were appointed for 530 GPs in Nizamabad and 526 in Kamareddy.
As per the guidelines of the State Government the district administrations did a laborious exercise to select special officers and office buildings for newly-formed panchayats. A majority of tribal hamlets which surpassed the population of 500 were made panchayats.
In the old district 716 panchayats were there. Villagers gave a grand farewell to the incumbent sarpanches in villages yesterday. Special functions were held and residents actively participated in them. Meanwhile the MLAs opened new gram panchayats amid festive atmosphere at several tribal hamlets. The Nizamabad rural MLA Bajireddy Govardhan inaugurated them at tribal hamlets of Gandhinagar, Kasbagh, Ghanpur, Nadipally, Padkal, Viveknagar and Nallagutta villages and at Gangaram tanda, Meghyanayak tanda, College and Madhul tandas.