HYDERABAD: The All India Majilis Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) took GHMC Commissioner DS Lokesh Kumar to task for removing the garbage bins from the city roads, forcing residents to throw garbage on the roads, leading to haphazard dispersal of the garbage. “Who took the policy decision of bin-free city in the GHMC limits,” AIMIM MLC Syed Aminul Hasan Jafri and corporators questioned the Commissioner. AIMIM said the Commissioner has no such powers to take the policy decision and that the authority to take such decisions lies with an elected GHMC body, like the Standing Committee, and the same should be ratified by the GHMC General Body.
The roads turn into dumping yards as the garbage isn’t cleared at once due to the lack of Swachh Auto Tippers (SAT) and workers. The ones plying have become old and many of them are under repair in workshops, while some SATs which are collecting garbage are being forced to collect accumulated garbage from roadsides by the Assistant Medical Officer of Health (AMOH). “Who is responsible for the mess in the city and what action will the civic body take,” AIMIM members asked the Commissioner. The GHMC anticipated Rs 400 crore from stamp duty, Rs 200 crore under professional tax, Rs 102 crore under property tax, but not much is coming from the State government, AIMIM leaders claimed.
BJP opposes ‘unrealistic’ budget
BJP Corporator Devara Karunakar, who participated in the virtual meeting, hit out at the GHMC for proposing an unrealistic budget. Adequate funds weren’t allocated for city development, and there is no mention of the poor while about 43 per cent of the budget is earmarked for administrative expenditure, he pointed out. “What is the need to give Rs 600 crore for land acquisition, while no funds have been sanctioned for slum development,” he asked.
Despite heavy floods last year, govt didn’t do enough:
TPCC chief TPCC president-elect A Revanth Reddy criticised the State government for not learning anything from the last year’s foods and failing to take any concrete preventive measures before the arrival of monsoon. He also lashed out at the BJP and ridiculed them over their ‘moral lectures’. Speaking to media persons after the attending the swearing in ceremony of Lingojiguda Corporator D Rajshekar Reddy at the GHMC office, he wondered as to why the administration failed to gear up for the monsoon, despite earmarking Rs 800 crore for this and sound tax collection.