HYDERABAD: Telangana State Legislative Assembly approved a Bill providing 50 per cent reservation to women in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). With this, the women will be elected in 75 out of 150 divisions in the GHMC.
The GHMC (Amendment) Bill, 2020, introduced by Municipal Minister KT Rama Rao, was adopted by the State Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.
The government provided 50 per cent reservations to women in GHMC elections in 2015 through an executive order. Now, the 50 per cent reservations to women in the ensuing GHMC polls will be provided through statutory provision.
The Telangana government already provided 50 per cent reservations to women in Panchayat Raj bodies and Municipalities. "With this, Telangana is the first state in the country to provide 50 per cent reservations to women in all local bodies," Municipal Minister Rama Rao said.
Besides providing 50 per cent reservation to women, four more amendments were made to the GHMC Act today. Four Ward Committees - youth, women, senior citizen and eminent citizen - will be constituted for each division in GHMC. Each committee will have 25 members. "A battalion of 15,000 people will be created in GHMC. These committee members will supervise green cover, solid waste management, discourage of usage of plastic, prevention of encroachments, development of sports and parks," Rama Rao said.
Another amendment made was to increase the green cover fund from 2.5 per cent to ten per cent in GHMC Budget. The rotation of reservation which was done for every for years would be made once in ten years hereafter in accordance with the Census. The ensuing GHMC polls will be held as per the reservations fixed for 2105 elections. The GHMC also amended that the State Election Commission should fix the poll date for GHMC in concurrence with the State government.
The MIM and the Congress members supported the amendments. However, the Congress member Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka urged the State government to increase the reservations to Backward Classes from 33 per cent to 50 per cent in accordance with the population of BCs.
The Municipal Minister said that the Ward Committees were proposed only to increase the participation of the people and they were not intended to undermine the importance of the elected Corporators. Rama Rao said that the selection of members of the Ward Committees would be made through apolitical manner.