The Hindu Business Line : 'TDP diverted Rs 2,000 cr meant for local bodies'

ACCUSING the Telugu Desam Government of diverting funds meant for local bodies in the State to the extent of Rs 2,000 crore during the past eight years, the Congress party has promised to rejuvenate the panchayat raj system, if it is voted to power.

At a regional conference of the panchayat raj cell of the party here on Sunday, representatives from the north-coastal districts participated.

Mr Gulab Nabi Azad, General Secretary of the AICC and senior leader in charge of the party affairs in the State, recounted that soon after assuming power in the eighties, the late Rajiv Gandhi had discovered to his dismay that only 20 per cent of the funds meant for rural development were trickling down to the villages. To prevent such fund diversion at various intermediate levels he had introduced two bills to amend the Constitution.

They were passed by the Lok Sabha, but as the Congress did not have sufficient strength in the Rajya Sabha they were defeated in the Upper House.

It is noteworthy that both the TDP and the BJP, which now talk of rural development in high-sounding terms, voted against the bills.''

Further, Rajiv Gandhi included the issue in the poll manifesto in the subsequent general elections.

In 1993, the Narasimha Rao Government had seen to it that the bills were passed in the Rajya Sabha too and the 73 and 74 amendments to the Constitution could at last be effected, he said.

But, he regretted, the Telugu Desam Government during the past eight years had not implemented the Acts.

To make matters worse, it had introduced the nodal system to bypass the elected representatives of the local bodies and give importance to officials.

"We will set things right if we get back to power and we will expose Mr Chandrababu and his ally, the BJP, on this crucial issue,'' he said.

As a result of the 73, 74 amendments to the Constitution, he said as many as 30 lakh people from the weaker sections, Scheduled Castes and Tribes were drawn into the political process and one-third of them were women.

"Such a revolutionary change could be brought about because of our visionary leader. Can the BJP, or the Telugu Desam, deny it? And what have they done to seek votes in the villages'' he questioned.

Mr N. Janardhana Reddy, former chief minister, Dr Y.S Rajasekhara Reddy, leader of the Congress legislature party in the dissolved Assembly and several other Congress leaders spoke in the same tenor, castigating the Telugu Desam Government and promising to scrap the nodal officer system and schemes such as Janmabhoomi introduced by the TDP Government.

Ms Rajana Ramani, Mayor of Visakhapatnam, Ms Kantamma, Chairperson of Visakhapatnam zilla parishad and Ms Sandhya Rani, Chairperson of Vizianagaram zilla parishad, paid their homage to the late Rajiv Gandhi.

They said they would have been nowhere, had it not been for his sagacity and foresight in introducing the PR bills.

However, in a conference with its avowed focus on local bodies, almost 80 per cent of the time was taken up by Mr Azad and the State leaders and only 20 per cent was left for the leaders of the local bodies to air their views.

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