Hyderabad: State Industries and IT Minister Duddilla Sridhar Babu has criticised the leaders of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) party over their recent protests alongside ex-sarpanches. He questioned how BRS leaders could show support for the sarpanches, when they themselves were responsible for causing severe financial strain on them. “How can those responsible for the unpaid bills that led to 60 sarpanches committing suicide now pretend to support them?” Sridhar Babu remarked, highlighting the irony.
The Minister explained that delays in clearing payments for rural development projects pushed sarpanches into deep debt. Many local contractors refused to take up small projects, so sarpanches took the initiative to complete them, only to face financial troubles later. Sridhar Babu blamed the BRS leaders for diverting around Rs 1,300 crore meant for village development, which left the sarpanches unpaid and struggling.
According to Sridhar Babu, many sarpanches had to take out private loans with high interest rates to fund community projects. These debts have become too much to handle because the BRS government had left bills unpaid for more than 30 months. He believes this financial burden contributed to the tragic suicides of 60 sarpanches, with at least 200 others attempting suicide due to similar stress. When Revanth Reddy, who was the TPCC President at the time, raised concerns about the sarpanches, the BRS leaders accused him of “political opportunism.” Now, those same leaders are leading protests with the sarpanches, which Sridhar Babu called an example of double standards and opportunism.
Sridhar Babu also mentioned that some sarpanches were forced to sell their household valuables just to pay off loan interest because they had not been paid for their work. He emphasized that sarpanches, as leaders and “first citizens” of the village, deserve respect and support for their service. He assured that the government is now working on a phased release of funds to address the overdue payments and help alleviate the financial stress faced by the sarpanches.
