PR Amendment Bill passed to enable GPs deposit/draw funds in banks, post offices

HYDERABAD

The Legislative Assembly passed the Telangana Panchayat Raj (Fourth Amendment) Bill 2026 with a voice vote on Thursday, facilitating Gram Panchayats to deposit funds allocated to them in nationalised and cooperative banks and post offices, since withdrawing funds deposited in the Treasury was getting very difficult.

Minister for Panchayat Raj D. Seethakka said during the discussion on the Bill that the system of depositing panchayat funds in the Treasury was introduced by the previous BRS Government and since then the village-level local bodies were finding it difficult to withdraw funds sanctioned to them by the Central and State Governments. As a result, even taking up small maintenance works like changing fused street-lights had become difficult.

Participating in the discussion, P. Harish Babu (BJP) said the Centre had sanctioned about ₹14,100 crore to Gram Panchayats in Telangana during 2025-26 and ₹1,000 crore was released so far in 2026-27. He alleged that the delay in release of matching grants (state funds) was affecting development of villages. He requested the State Government to allocate funds for maintenance of Rythu Vedika buildings since they were being used for all village-level government programmes.

He pointed out that per capita grant of ₹8 each, stamp duty share and seigniorage charges were also not being released to local bodies — gram panchayats, mandal parishads and zilla parishads and wanted the government to resume the practice.

Ch. Vijayaramana Rao, Ch. Vamshi Krishna, K. Shankaraiah and T. Rammohan Reddy (all Congress), Payal Shankar (BJP) and Kausar Mohiuddin (AIMIM) also participated in the discussion. Mr. Shankar requested the government to form roads or ways to farm fields in villages with VB G-RAM G funds since farmers were finding it difficult to move their produce from the field and take farm equipment and other inputs.

The Minister stated that passage of the Bill would also enable the panchayats to avail Panchayat Raj Own Resources Fund with Gram Sabha resolution.