Since beginning the Andhra Pradesh Sarpanches Association has been apprehending that with the dictatorial of the State Government a situation will arise oneday that they will have to resort to suicide and this has finally turned out to be true on Sunday with the suicide of the sarpanch, Ms Badam Dhanalakshmi, president of the AP Panchayat Raj Chamber, YVB Rajendra Prasad, on Monday.
Rajendra Prasad termed the suicide of the woman sarpanch as the murder by the State Government and demanded that Chief Minister, Jagan Mohan Reddy, be held responsible for this suicide of the sarpanch belonging to the ruling YSRCP.
Demanding Rs 1 cr be paid as compensation to the bereaved family members of Badam Dhanalakshmi, Rajendra Prasad also said that the pending bills of the 12,918 sarpanches belonging to both the ruling and the Opposition parties should be released immediately.
Dhanalakshmi, the sarpanch of Ramachandrapuram panchayat of Darsi mandal in the combined Prakasam district committed suicide on Sunday by hanging herself as the bills for the works executed have been pending since long.
The sarpanch raised the funds through loans on heavy interest to execute the works in the panchayat. Unable to pay the interest and the bills too have been pending since long she resorted to suicide on Sunday.
State Sarpanches Association president, Vanapalli Lakshmi Mutyala Rao, demanded that the Rs 8860 cr Finance Commission funds, diverted by the State Government be credited immediately to the accounts of the gram panchayats.
Both Rajendra Prasad and Mutyala Rao said that though since long they have been demanding the Chief Minister to focus on the problems of the sarpanches and release the pending bills, he did not consider the appeal.
The bills have been kept pending as the Rs 8660 cr funds of the 14th and 15th Finance Commission released by the Centre for panchayats have been diverted by the State Government and utilised for various personal purposes, they felt.