HYDERABAD: Even as the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) pleads financial distress, it has found Rs 2 crore to set up a temporary office for the proposed Cyberabad Municipal Corporation, prompting disbelief and criticism in equal measure.
The GHMC will renovate the National Academy of Construction (NAC) building at Madhapur to house an additional commissioner and heads of departments on a temporary basis for the Kukatpally zone. Tenders have already been floated.
Notably, the office is temporary, the spending permanent.
The move comes as the state government prepares to reorganise the GHMC, which has expanded to 300 wards, into two additional municipal corporations. Even before a formal notification, administrative groundwork is underway. Two IAS officers have been appointed as additional commissioners, each overseeing three zones, collectively covering all 12 GHMC zones.
The arrangement is meant to ease their transition as Commissioners once the trifurcation is officially announced, sources told TNIE.
In the meantime, the additional commissioners have begun operating within their jurisdictions, holding review meetings with senior officials. Vinay Krishna Reddy, in charge of the Malkajgiri, Uppal and LB Nagar zones, has set up office in the HMDA building at Tarnaka, expected to become the future Malkajgiri municipal corporation headquarters.
It is the western zones that have stirred controversy. G Srijana, additional commissioner for the Serilingampally, Kukatpally and Quthbullapur zones, has reportedly been conducting reviews from the Manikonda municipal office and the Serilingampally zonal office. Officials, however, found the Manikonda building, a relatively new structure, “inadequate” to host senior officers and staff from multiple departments.
Their solution is renovate the NAC building at Madhapur at a cost of around Rs 2 crore. This has led to an obvious question: Why spend crores on a temporary office when existing government buildings are already available?
Critics argue that if the arrangement is truly temporary, official work could have continued from the Manikonda or Serilingampally offices, avoiding an expensive makeover. Officials counter that space is required to accommodate senior officers from all departments. The explanation has done little to calm critics, particularly when the GHMC is struggling to clear contractors’ dues, maintain basic infrastructure, and address everyday civic complaints.
The episode has revived a familiar debate on spending patterns within the GHMC. Office renovations and upgrades have often attracted scrutiny. Despite the Mayor having a fully equipped office at the GHMC headquarters, an additional exclusive office was later created on the seventh floor with elaborate facilities.
The Deputy Mayor followed with an upgrade a few years later. In the past, even additional commissioners have reportedly spent crores from the civic body’s funds in the name of repairs and renovation of chambers.
Recently, all 150 corporators went on a multi-city study tour, with barely months for their term to end. That set back the corporation an estimated Rs 1.4 crore.
For a corporation that regularly cites empty coffers when roads crumble, the ability to find crores for a temporary address, or office upgrades, the question is whether the problem is a lack of funds or misplaced priorities.