Courting controversies

By Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: The Y S Rajasekhara Reddy-led Congress government in Andhra Pradesh never tires from overstepping its brief. Looks like the government has scant regard for the rule of law and the statutes.
In yet another controversial move, the state government issued two GOs that clearly undermine the role and authority of the local bodies, both rural and urban, in the state. The GOs, in fact, are a blatant violation of the Constitution (73 and 74 Amendment) Acts as they seek to bypass the established systems in the local bodies. The GOs No. 13 and No. 880 -- issued by the Planning Department and the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department respectively -- empower the respective district incharge ministers to recommend and sanction development works in the local bodies for which separate sums of Rs 992.70 crore (rural) and Rs 200 crore (urban) have been released. Such orders were unprecedented and ostensibly meant to dole out benefits to Congress workers in the form of nominated work contracts in the crucial "election year." The Rs 200 crore released to the urban local bodies (ULBs) are meant for maintenance of internal roads in towns while the sum of Rs 992.70 crore released to the rural mandals is meant for "integrated development of internal cement concrete roads and drainage facilities" in villages. Each rural mandal will get Rs 90 lakh as grant-in-aid to carry out the works while 109 municipalities and 12 municipal corporations (excluding Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam) will get Rs 1 crore each. Besides, ULBs will also get a share in the balance Rs 79 crore as per the population. Towns where roads works are sanctioned under the components of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission will, however, not get any grants from the state. Normally, the elected Councils of ULBs themselves list out the various works on priority and sanction them even if grants, in any form, are provided by the state or the Centre. But now, the state has entrusted the task of sanctioning the works to the "district incharge minister alone," clearly bypassing the elected Councils. Even the mandal-level works will also be decided and sanctioned by the district in charge minister, leaving no say for the local bodies in the entire process. The respective district Collectors will accord administrative sanction for the works chosen by the district in charge minister. "These GOs are illegal and are a clear violation of the Constitution. We shall launch a state-wide agitation against the orders demanding that the responsibility of sanctioning the works be vested only with the elected bodies," president of AP PanchayatRaj Chamber and member of Legislative Council Y BabuRajendra Prasad told this correspondent. CPM's urban affairs cell leader Ch Babu Rao too strongly opposed the GOs and said they would undermine the local bodies.