HYDERABAD: The call to politicians, especially elected representatives and those holding positions of power in the state government by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to adopt villages in Telangana, has not yielded positive results.
According to officials only 30 per cent of the total gram panchayats in the state have been adopted by politicians, film stars and others. And even where villages have been adopted, lack of clarity as to what needs to be done later, has resulted in the adoption plan not moving forward the way the government envisaged.
Officials admitted that there are no guidelines from the government on the scheme.
“Those adopted villages can take up any activity which is useful for the village and there are no restrictions on works. For identifying the issues and problems, persons can coordinate with seven functional committees on sanitation, education and community issues in gram panchayats,” Anitha Ramachandran, commissioner of panchayat raj and rural development told TOI.
Some of the elected representatives who announced such adoptions, have not even visited their chosen villages even once so far. For instance, government chief whip Koppula Eshwar has not visited Raghavapatnam village in his Dharmapuri constituency after adopting it.
“Though it is not mandatory, several Zilla Parishad and Mandal Parishad territorial members and Mandal Parishad presidents have adopted villages. There are over 1,06 lakh elected representatives in the state including zilla parishad chairmen, vice chairmen, ZPTCs, MPTCs, MPPs, and sarpanches. All the villages would be covered even if the top elected representatives adopt one village each,” a senior official of panchayat raj and rural development told TOI.
The Telangana government which launched the Grama Jyothi programme in August, has been hoping that others would emulate the chief minister who adopted two villages, Mulkanur in Karimnagar district and Erravelli in Medak district. While ministers in his cabinet were asked to adopt up to five gram panchayats each, MLAs and MLCs were urged to at least adopt one village each. The MLCs have been given the freedom to choose any village as they do not represent any particular constituency.
Interestingly, some opposition party leaders also joined hands in the programme and adopted villages. For instance, leader of opposition in the legislative council Mohd Ali Shabbir adopted two villages (Machareddy and Rameshwarpalle) in Nizamabad. Congress MPs Guttta Sukhender Reddy and Palvai Govardhan Reddy adopted villages in Nalgonda district.
Among the celebrities who have made news about their adoptions are movie actors Mahesh Babu and Prakash Raj who adopted one village each in Mahbubnagar district. Officials said that so far, of the 8,695 gram panchayats in the state, 2,564 gram panchayats have been adopted by elected representatives, officials and also some police officers.
