Hyderabad: After a gap of a few years, Telangana govt has agreed to resume matching grants of nearly 50% for the over ₹1,250 crore funds released by the Finance Commission to gram panchayats in the state.The state’s matching grants would be released through Telangana State Finance Commission every month towards the salaries of multipurpose workers (MPWs) in gram panchayats, totalling ₹600 crore per annum.Panchayat raj department officials have taken it up with govt for the release of cent per cent matching grant, i.e. ₹1,250 crore released by the Finance Commission to the rural local bodies.Officials said over ₹4,000 crore in state matching grants were delayed during the previous BRS tenure and later the Congress govt between 2014 and 2024. The pending state matching grants and delayed Finance Commission grants due to non-conduct of elections in rural local bodies had triggered financial crises for the gram panchayats.Both former sarpanches and local contractors have been demanding that govt clear the pending bills that have accumulated over recent years. Though the Centre released ₹1,250 crore in the 15th Finance Commission grants for the 2024-25 fiscal and those for 2025-26 were being released after elected bodies came into office in gram panchayats, as many as ₹550 crore central grants lapsed due to the non-conduct of MPTC and ZPTC elections in the state before March 31.In all, the state was supposed to receive ₹3,000 crore from the 15th Finance Commission for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 financial years. The term of the 15th Finance Commission ended on March 31, and now funds have to be sought under the 16th Finance Commission.Panchayat raj commissioner D Divya told TOI that the state has also cleared the pending honorarium of the sarpanches. The monthly honorarium for sarpanches is ₹6,500 per month and govt had not released it for the past five months due to their bank account, IFSC and other details being entered into the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) of the finance department.“There are 12,760 sarpanches and feeding their bank account details and completing other formalities took place. Govt has released their total pending honorarium and will do so every month,” Divya added.Following large-scale representations, govt has also asked the panchayat raj commissioner to look into the categorisation of the workforce among the multipurpose workers.
