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Ruckus Over Sanitation, Road at GHMC Meet
Ruckus Over Sanitation, Road at GHMC Meet, Urban Community Development. The second installment of the 13th ordinary meeting of the GHMC was conducted on Monday. It was chaired by Mohammed Majid Hussain, Mayor.
The second installment of the 13th ordinary meeting of the GHMC was conducted on Monday. It was chaired by Mohammed Majid Hussain, Mayor. In a surprising turn of events, during the early hours of the meeting, V Hanumantha Rao, Congress MP attended the meeting as an ex-officio member. During his brief address to the council, he mentioned that the GHMC still had a lot of pending works and that the condition of roads were bad. He further added that as the Commissioner of the GHMC, Somesh Kumar must act on them on a war footing. Hanumantha Rao also criticised the Commissioner for staging a walkout on Saturday and mentioned that it portrayed the GHMC in poor light.
Sanitation
The council went on to discuss the issue of sanitation in the city. The issue raised by Bangari Prakash, BJP Floor Leader, was soon catered to by L Vandan Kumar, Additional Commissioner, Health and Sanitation who promised to look into the project. The Mayor then passed a resolution saying that a detailed area-wise survey must be conducted to understand the needs and requirements of the sanitation units. Also the Commissioner was asked to keep track of the funding given to all the council members and was asked to report must be placed before the standing committee in the next meeting.
Roads
When the issue of roads cropped up, a resolution was taken that the Commissioner must review the conditions division-wise and restore the roads immediately. It was mentioned that this should be done in consultation with the corporators and public representatives. Also Rs 50 lakh would be allotted to each ward for the restoration of bad roads.
Former Mayor walks out
The issue of Urban Community Development (UCD) was brought up by corporator R Sumalatha, who lamented that all the programmes that have been conducted under the UCD banner, have not garnered the required support and attention of the people in the city. She further added that women welfare programmes have been put on the back burner for quite some time. “Considering that the GHMC had a women Mayor (Banda Karthika Chandra Reddy), the drab conditions of these programmes is deplorable,” said the corporator. This statement was then concurred by most of the TDP corporators.
In this light, the former Mayor defended herself by saying that she did her level best at that time. But with the corporators pushing the former mayor for an explanation, she walked out of the meeting which brought it to an abrupt halt. Later on she said that it was a personal attack and was not justified. She added that unless Singireddy Srinivas Reddy apologised, she would not attend the meeting. But eventually she took her place in the council.
Inspections by third parties questioned
A Mahesh Yadav, Corporator questioned Dhan Singh, Engineer-in-chief, about the use of consultants and third-party agencies’ introspection of engineering works. Adding more weight was Mir Zulfequar Ali, corporator, MIM, who questioned, “When there are so many engineers in the department, do we need a consulting party? Was the general body or standing committee approached for permission before employing consulting agencies?”
Dhan Singh replied that there was a shortage of staff and they needed the assistance of agencies. “The engineers in the department aren’t adept at investigation, planning, design and drawing. That is why we need these agencies.”
Zulfequar retorted that the use of these agencies was increasing the budget of projects.
Somesh Kumar then said, “The regular engineering works taken up by the department is ok but they aren’t adept at specialised works for which we need the assistance of experts. That is why we have been using these agencies.” The Mayor then passed a resolution saying the expenditure and extent of works taken up by agencies must be put in the next standing committee meeting for further clarifications.
Ban on plastics highlighted
Also discussed in the meeting was the impact of the GHMC on plastic industries, to which Ronald Ross, AC, Town Planning said, “We are looking into this on a war footing basis and will take action very soon. Till date 13,000 kgs of plastic has been seized and Rs 35 lakhs has been collected in fines.”
A resolution was passed that the Commissioner would take action against illegal plastic units in the city and that the ban on plastics should be acted upon with more severity. The Commissioner was also requested to take stringent action against illegal manufactures of oil from animal waste.
