HYDERABAD: Though the one-year term of the second Standing Committee of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) lapsed more than a month ago, the schedule to conduct polls to elect 15 members among the 150 GHMC corporators of the standing committee has not yet been announced.
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy who holds the Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) portfolio has to give consent for the conduct of polls for the standing committee. The GHMC is hopeful that the chief minister will give assent at the earliest after the Assembly session concludes.
The 15-member committee, headed by the Hyderabad Mayor, is the apex body of GHMC that makes important policy decisions. All the development works worth between Rs 2 to 3 crore have to be approved by this committee while works of less than Rs 2 crore are approved by the GHMC commissioner or zonal commissioners.
For works ranging from Rs 3 to 6 crore, proposals should be placed before the Council, and if the cost of works exceeds Rs 6 crore they should be sent to the state government for approval and obtaining orders. Sources said that the elections for the Standing Committee could not be held due to the model code of conduct that was in force for the recently concluded Telangana Assembly polls.
They said that after getting consent from the CM, the civic body will issue the election notification, asking the 150 corporators to elect a new standing committee. As the GHMC has 150 wards, it will have 15 members, that is, one member for 10 wards.
THREE WARDS VACANT
Apart from polls to the Standing Committee panel, elections to three Divisions namely Gudimalkapur, Shastripuram, and Mehdipatnam had to be conducted by the Telangana State Election Commission (TSEC). The Gudimalkapur division fell vacant due to the demise of BJP corporator Devara Karunakar. Shastripuram and Mehdipatnam divisions will fall vacant as the two sitting GHMC MIM corporators, Mohamma Mubeen (Shastripuram division) and Majid Hussain (Mehdipatnam) had to resign following their election to the Assembly from Bahadurpura and Nampally Assembly constituencies on MIM tickets.