Hyderabad

Andhra Pradesh

YSR Congress Party

panchayat building

Telugu Desam Party

YSRCP

Tricolour

YS Jaganmohan Reddy

: In a controversial deed, officials in a village inreplaced the National Flag with rulingcolour on aThe deed of the village secretariat officials in Tamidepalli in Amarapuram block of Anantapur district drew flak from various quarters.general secretary and MLC Nara Lokesh tweeted, "This is the respect our YSR Congress leaders have for our National Flag. Tomorrow, they may hoist Party flag in place of National Flag." He noted that the government got the burial grounds also painted withcolour.Political analyst M Yugandhar Reddy took serious exception to the erasing offor promoting a particular party’s interests. "This is sheer madness. The Centre or the judiciary should immediately intervene and issue guidelines with regard to painting of government offices in all states. Public buildings should be painted with neutral color. Painting a public office building with a particular party’s colour would imply that those who do not belong to the party should not step in."BJP Andhra Pradesh unit president Kanna Lakshminarayana had already objected to the paints. "This government is good for nothing other than painting the government buildings in is party colour," he said.The officials got the panchayat building painted with the YSR Congress Party colour, as per the August 30 directive of the government. It may be mentioned that state panchayat raj and rural development commissioner M Girija Shankar directed that all the panchayat buildings should be painted in YSR Congress Party colour and there should a photo of Chief Ministeron the panchayat name plate. All the 11,158 panchayats were asked to meet the expenses from their own funds.While a majority of the panchayats have already implemented the government diktat, some are in the process. Each panchayat requires up to Rs 25,000 based on the size of the building.