Telangana Government is considering Panchayat elections on party basis and indirect election to the post of the village head or Sarpanch. This was one of many suggestions which came up for discussion at the first meeting of the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao with the newly constituted Cabinet sub-committee.
The sub-committee headed by the State Panchayat Raj Minister Jupally Krishna Rao will draft a new Bill for the Panchayat system in the State. The Bill will provide more administrative and financial powers to the Panchayat’s. In case the proposal for indirect election of Sarpanch gets the nod, the newly elected Panchayat members will elect the Sarpanch within hours of their election. The Government was also considering that the entire process of Panchayat elections should be completed with in a week of issuing the notification of by the State election commission. The objective of ensuring the election of Sarpanch’s on the day of the result of Panchayat members was to avoid any group politics or lobbying or luring of members by offering them incentives to support any particular individual.
The proposed bill will also impose conditions on the Sarpanch’s to ensure that the development works in the villages are completed within the stipulated time.
The State is going to have the Panchayat elections in next few months ahead of next year’s State Assembly elections. Chief Minister has already decided to declare every village with 500 population as a Panchayat and also upgraded the tribal hamlets to the same level.