GHMC General Body meeting held; Q&A and budget discussions on Tuesday

With revenue income estimated at Rs. 5,938 crore, revenue expenditure is Rs. 3,458 crore, revenue surplus is Rs. 2,480 crore, and capital funds and expenditure are Rs. 1,999 crore and Rs. 4,479 crore respectively

Hyderabad: The long overdue General Body meeting of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) was held here on Monday. Taking cognizance of the multiple grievances raised by the members, Mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi said that officials’ negligence in performing their duties will not be tolerated.

She directed Commissioner Ronald Rose to surrender such officers to the government and further asked him to submit a detailed report on all the announcements made.

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Among other issues, the corporators highlighted the malfunctioning street lights in the city. With only two persons overseeing 4,000 street lights, they stressed on lack of infrastructure and manpower for maintenance.

Answering the members’ questions, the commissioner said that such issues were mostly being observed in the south zone and explained that unknown persons were manually switching the street lights on and off. He added that 30 workers were recruited by the EESL to maintain the street lights and assured that cables and lights would be arranged in the mentioned areas before Ramzan festivities.

Further, corporators, MLAs, and MLCs asked the Mayor to inquire and take action on the illegal hoardings and said that the corporation was able to incur income due to the current advertisement hoardings policy in the city. In this regard, along with an all-party committee, a special officer will be appointed to conduct a thorough investigation.

As multiple corporators expressed anguish over officials not paying heed to the civic problems raised by them, the Mayor stated that additional review meetings would be conducted in every zone to discuss local problems in detail. The Council will reconvene on Tuesday for a question and answer session and further discussions on the budget.

Budget

A draft budget of Rs. 8,437 crore has been prepared by the GHMC for 2024-25, which is up for discussion and approval at the General Body meeting on Tuesday. With revenue income estimated at Rs. 5,938 crore, revenue expenditure is Rs. 3,458 crore, revenue surplus is Rs. 2,480 crore, and capital funds and expenditure are Rs. 1,999 crore and Rs. 4,479 crore respectively.

While a lion’s share is allocated for improving greenery and roads in the city, GHMC revealed that Rs. 500 crore is earmarked for the housing project. A total of Rs. 375 crore is expected to be spent on 57 theme parks in one-acre space which will be established in all zones. Another Rs. 1,640 crore has been allotted to develop roads in the city in addition to constructing more flyovers, skywalks, and underpasses.