FGG decries move to organise jaunts for GHMC corporators

Hyderabad: Alleging squandering of taxpayers’ money in the name of a study tour, the Forum for Good Governance (FGG) has urged the Municipal Administration Principal Secretary to stop the proposed tour of the corporators to various places in the country. The Standing Committee of GHMC in its meeting on December 29 had approved a proposal for a study tour of 145 corporators to other cities to learn about Urban Governance.

This comes at a time when the term of the present body is ending by February 2026. The corporators will be on study tour to cities like Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and others to learn about urban governance. The corporation is set to spend around Rs 1 lakh each on 145 corporators and the cumulative expenditure is likely to be around Rs 1.4 crore.

The Forum for Good Governance has said that the corporators term ends by February 2026 as such by the time they return from study tour there will hardly be any time left for them to put to use the knowledge they acquire during the study tour.

The proposed study tour was not going to benefit in any way to the people of Telangana in general and to the people of Hyderabad in particular. It is nothing but squandering of taxpayers’ money, said FGG president M Padmanabha Reddy.

The FGG president further said that in the case of government employees, a bureaucrat having less than one-year of service is generally not permitted to go abroad for a study tour. The idea behind it is that after returning from tour he should have sufficient service left to put to use his newly acquired knowledge.

Citizens have described these trips as recreational trips on public money. They have questioned the timing of the study tours at fag end of the term of the corproation.

This is not the first time the corporators were going for a study tour. In the year 2024, the corporators in three groups visited on a study tour to Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Guwahati in Assam the city known for its top ranking cleanliness initiatives. The aim of this tour was how Hyderabad could replicate other cities’ success in waste management and sanitation.