TDP national general secretary and MLC Nara Lokesh on Tuesday strongly objected to the GO (government order) No 2 issued by the Jaganmohan Reddy government, “obviously to clip the powers of the elected sarpanches”, thus reducing them to mere figure heads in the local self-administration.
Lokesh described GO 2 as antithetical and inconsistent with the 73rd Amendment of the Constitution that vests sarpanches with special rights and responsibilities. The Jagan Reddy dictatorial action had now thrown Mahatma Gandhi’s noble dream of Gram Swaraj into the dustbin, he alleged.In a statement here, the TDP leader asked how the YCP government could reduce the controlling powers of the sarpanches on the gram secretariats. By resorting to the latest constitutional violation, CM Jagan Reddy had caused a huge hurdle in the path of sarpanches to provide good governance and welfare in local bodies, he alleged. This would go against the spirit of the 73rd Amendment and also against Article 243G of the Constitution.
Lokesh accused the ruling YCP leaders from the local to the state levels of trying to rule the panchayats through their party activists who were appointed as Grama Volunteers and Grama Secretariat staff. The ruling party was coming out with unimaginable GOs continuously only to continue its suppression of all sections of the people, he said.