Warangal: Development comes to nought

Warangal: With the government holding up its decision to appoint a full time municipal commissioner to the Greater Warangal after it promoted and transferred Pamela Satpathy to Yadadri-Bhongir district, the ongoing developmental works in the city have almost come to a grinding halt. Adding more woes to it, newly elected Corporators are yet to familiarise themselves with the functioning of the urban local body (ULB).

The absence of municipal commissioner at a time when the city needed most will have adverse effects on developmental works. With the government asking the Urban district collector Rajeev Gandhi Hanumanthu to look after the affairs of the GWMC, instead of delineating full additional charge (FAC) to him, several key issues such as tenders to be finalised and called for, issuing work orders etc have been put on hold. The city has seen six municipal commissioners – literally one a year – since it became Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) in 2015. Perhaps Pamela Satpathy is the only official to vacate her position on promotion rather than a political victimhood.

"Frequent chopping and changing of civic chiefs are not going to help the cause of the ULB which is under immense pressure due to snail pace of developmental works. The role of Commissioner who looks after and inspects developmental works, besides communicating to the government on a daily basis cannot be filled up by a makeshift arrangement. With rains around and many spot decisions to be made to tackle the people's grievances, absence of full-time commissioner leaves a huge void in the administration," Forum for Better Warangal president and an expert in town planning Pulluru Sudhakar told The Hans India.

Compounding the problem was the newly elected Corporators – 52 of the 66 are first timers – who are yet to get down to their act even after more than one-and-a-half-month they got elected. Majority of them have no idea of how the ULB functions.

On the other hand, Pattana Pragathi programme is set to commence from July 1 which requires a lot of planning and execution. Although the Collector was reviewing the situation frequently, it required time and focus. Meanwhile, speculation is rife that the government is likely to appoint Badavath Santhosh or P Pravinya (both 2016 IAS Batch and working with the GHMC) as the GWMC Commissioner.