XI Metropolis Congress a flop show

The much hyped XI Metropolis World Congress concluded on Friday with a few delegates being toured across the city to showcase Hyderabad Metro Rail sites, Falaknuma Palace and other places. By evening the pots that were placed at strategic locations in the city (read where the delegates would pass by) were already looking as jaded as the conference.

• Only 168 foreign delegates attended the Congress, with majority of them being Telugu NRIs
• Many delegates used this fully paid trip to visit their home town
• Rs 15 crore was spent to conduct the XI Metropolis Congress

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) had put up hoardings stating that 400 foreign delegates would be attending the Congress and the total number of delegates would number over 2,000.

However, hardly half of them turned up for the event. In many sessions, empty chairs greeted the speakers. To avoid this embarrassing situation, the GHMC forced its staff to occupy the empty chairs.

In spite of the GHMC having a full year to conduct the Congress, due to improper handling of the event, several delegates were not informed on time which led to them cancelling the trip. The ones that showed interest were also Indians who had settled in different countries and came for the event so that they could visit their home town.

Singi Reddy Srinivas Reddy, TDP floor leader, GHMC, said, “The GHMC had invited 1600 delegates from 90 countries but only 168 from about 50 countries took part in the Congress. The date and venue was fixed one year ago and the civic body had a full year to coordinate and bring in delegates.”

Raghav from Pune said that apart from a session on climate change, there was nothing to take back. “I was expecting to meet experts in the field of renewable energy but hardly anyone turned up. I am disappointed.”