City MLAs get Rs 144 cr bonanza
HYDERABAD: It's payback time for the Kiran Kumar Reddy government. A day after the Congress government survived the no-trust move, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has given city legislators a kitty of Rs 144 crore to suggest and implement works of their choice in their constituencies.
Incidentally, the express sanction was on the directions of municipal administration minister M Mahidhar Reddy on Wednesday last, a day after the no-trust vote in the Assembly.
Until now, MLAs have been getting Rs one crore per annum towards the Assembly Constituency Development Programme (ACDP). With this fund, MLAs can recommend works of their choice like laying of roads, sewer lines and construction of community halls in their respective assembly segment through any agency like GHMC, Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB ) or Quli Qutub Shah Urban Development Authority. Since there are 24 MLAs in the city, this works out to Rs 6 crore per MLA.
Political analysts say this move is to appease the MIM which had solidly stood behind the Kiran government. The MIM has seven MLAs in the city but it will benefit the 13 Congress MLAs from Greater Hyderabad. As soon as the directive came from the minister, GHMC officials were pressed into service to take proposals from all the MLAs in Greater Hyderabad limits and prepare estimations. The GHMC officials even called up an MIM MLA, who was away in the US, to get his proposals.
GHMC sources said the executive engineers are working overtime for the past few days to prepare proposals and estimates. Most of the proposals have been sanctioned by the GHMC commissioner and would be completed on priority basis by taking them up during the second phase of the 100-day programme.
Interestingly , GHMC corporators have been demanding Rs 1 crore per year as corporator's budget to take up various development works in their division. But the proposal was rejected, after the council passed a resolution, by municipal minister Mahidhar Reddy in the first quarter of this year as city MLAs opposed special budget to corporator as they were getting only Rs 25 lakh per year.
Finally, a month ago, GHMC commissioner Krishna Babu agreed to allocate works of Rs 50 lakh to each division which will be taken up on the choice of the corporator. Now, the corporators are questioning municipal minister's decision to provide Rs 6 crore quota to city MLAs in the GHMC. "No civic body has quota for MLAs to recommend works and would become a bad precedent," a Congress corporator said.
Interestingly, over 13,000 works worth Rs 920 crore were sanctioned by the GHMC in the last two years and over 80% work are yet to be completed. Of the total works, 10,700 works worth Rs 720 crore were sanctioned in previous years and could not be completed. During the 2011-12 , 4,500 works worth Rs 153 crore were given administrative sanction by the municipal corporation.
"GHMC is struggling to complete works sanctioned earlier due to financial crisis. Now, how they are going to complete works worth Rs 150 crore," a GHMC floor leader said. When contacted , GHMC engineer-in-chief R Dhan Singh admitted that the corporation has taken the list of works of their choice from each city MLA worth over Rs 6 crore. Analysts said that with this bonanza to Hyderabad legislators, other MLAS from elsewhere will ask for their share and would want a similar deal.
Incidentally, the express sanction was on the directions of municipal administration minister M Mahidhar Reddy on Wednesday last, a day after the no-trust vote in the Assembly.
Until now, MLAs have been getting Rs one crore per annum towards the Assembly Constituency Development Programme (ACDP). With this fund, MLAs can recommend works of their choice like laying of roads, sewer lines and construction of community halls in their respective assembly segment through any agency like GHMC, Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB ) or Quli Qutub Shah Urban Development Authority. Since there are 24 MLAs in the city, this works out to Rs 6 crore per MLA.
Political analysts say this move is to appease the MIM which had solidly stood behind the Kiran government. The MIM has seven MLAs in the city but it will benefit the 13 Congress MLAs from Greater Hyderabad. As soon as the directive came from the minister, GHMC officials were pressed into service to take proposals from all the MLAs in Greater Hyderabad limits and prepare estimations. The GHMC officials even called up an MIM MLA, who was away in the US, to get his proposals.
GHMC sources said the executive engineers are working overtime for the past few days to prepare proposals and estimates. Most of the proposals have been sanctioned by the GHMC commissioner and would be completed on priority basis by taking them up during the second phase of the 100-day programme.
Interestingly , GHMC corporators have been demanding Rs 1 crore per year as corporator's budget to take up various development works in their division. But the proposal was rejected, after the council passed a resolution, by municipal minister Mahidhar Reddy in the first quarter of this year as city MLAs opposed special budget to corporator as they were getting only Rs 25 lakh per year.
Finally, a month ago, GHMC commissioner Krishna Babu agreed to allocate works of Rs 50 lakh to each division which will be taken up on the choice of the corporator. Now, the corporators are questioning municipal minister's decision to provide Rs 6 crore quota to city MLAs in the GHMC. "No civic body has quota for MLAs to recommend works and would become a bad precedent," a Congress corporator said.
Interestingly, over 13,000 works worth Rs 920 crore were sanctioned by the GHMC in the last two years and over 80% work are yet to be completed. Of the total works, 10,700 works worth Rs 720 crore were sanctioned in previous years and could not be completed. During the 2011-12 , 4,500 works worth Rs 153 crore were given administrative sanction by the municipal corporation.
"GHMC is struggling to complete works sanctioned earlier due to financial crisis. Now, how they are going to complete works worth Rs 150 crore," a GHMC floor leader said. When contacted , GHMC engineer-in-chief R Dhan Singh admitted that the corporation has taken the list of works of their choice from each city MLA worth over Rs 6 crore. Analysts said that with this bonanza to Hyderabad legislators, other MLAS from elsewhere will ask for their share and would want a similar deal.
No comments:
Post a Comment