Praja Sankalpa Yatra Diary, Day 114: TDP Rule Symbolises The Height Of Deception
Kakumanu, Guntur district. Absolving itself of social responsibility and neglecting village panchayats completely, this government has destroyed the fabric of rural society in Andhra Pradesh.
During the course of my Padayatra, I met Sarpanches everywhere who told me how the government neglected them and treated villages with indifference. “Sir, power is being cut for non-payment of electricity bills. As a result, drinking water supply has got seriously affected. Street lights also fail to function because of this and village life has got severely impacted. Never in the past was power supply stopped to village panchayats,” they said. How is it that this government seems to spare no one when it comes to its insensitivity?
In the past, governments extended a helping hand to minor panchayats when it came to electricity dues. The state made sure that people did not suffer on account of stoppage of water supply or power. Here, under the TDP rule, we see the government stripping village panchayats of their power, diluting their authority completely and thereby reducing their capacity to function effectively. This in short, is what the TDP government has turned village panchayats into. How unjust it is to stop power supply on the pretext of non-payment of electricity bills!
“Sir, minor panchayats do not have any income. Nor do they have funds which the government gives them. How can we pay these electricity bills? We are threatened by government officials saying that if we do not clear the electricity dues, the power of signing checks would be withdrawn from us.” when I heard the panchayat chiefs narrate their problems to me, I wondered whether this was Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of gram Swaraj? Under TDP, it seemed the anti-thesis of what the Mahatma had envisioned!
In Beekapalem, five women came and met me and narrated their saga of suffering. Theirs was a classic example of how cruel and vengeful this Chandrababu government was towards the most deprived segments of society. All these women—Mariamma, Ratamma, Santosham, Dayamma and Samrajyam—had lost their husbands owing to different reasons. However, all of them had the same story to tell, “Anna, we are extremely poor Dalits. We were hoping to get some pension which would help us survive. We have submitted our appeals and applications to Janmabhoomi committees several times and they continue to reject our pleas. They have not bothered to explain the reasons for rejection and we don’t know why they are vindictive towards us,” these women lamented. I felt extremely pained listening to their woes.
I have a question for the chief minister—your election manifesto had stated that the electricity bills of village panchayats would be met by the state government. Now, your government has been denying electricity supply to village panchayats on the pretext of non-payment of bills. Isn’t this the height of deception?
