All promise the moon

Building castles in GHMC poll manifestoes
Hyderabad: The ‘City of Pearls’ will get a tag of ‘most developed city ‘ on par with New York, Washington and Tokyo at least in the manifestoes to be released soon by the political parties, including the ruling TRS, to woo the voters in the ensuing Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections to be held on February 2.

World class city with infrastructure development projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore and creation of best livable city image with regular drinking water and power supply will be the main poll planks that would figure in the manifestoes of all political parties.

While the TRS has already announced construction of skyscrapers and multi-level flyovers with graphics of those found in the developed countries , the Opposition Congress and TDP- BJP combine are busy conceiving similar plans to promote Hyderabad as one of the most ‘developed cities ’ in the world in their election manifestoes.

Congress senior leader and in-charge for GHMC election Mohd Ali Shabbir said the city has witnessed huge development and has grown by leaps and bounds during the 10-year Congress rule between 2004 and 2014. Metro Rail, Outer Ring Road, Shamshabad Airport, PVNR Expressway and expansion of Hitech city are some of the examples, he points out. In this period alone, over Rs 1 lakh crore was spent on the development of the city.

In the backdrop of this, the Congress will come up with a roadmap for the development of the city like in advanced countries in its manifesto to be released soon. The priorities will be on improvement of public transportation, modern drainage system, regular water supply and solid waste management. Besides, special schemes meant for the welfare of slum-dwellers and poor if voted to power.

Telangnana TDP president L Ramana told The Hans India that their manifesto will be a blueprint for the future of the city and would promise to make Hyderabad as one of the best living cities in the world. After the construction of ‘HiTech City’ during the TDP regime in the early 2000, Hyderabad has become cynosure of all eyes and is also being promoted as the global city. New plans, including infrastructure development, will be included in the manifesto.

TRS leaders said Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has already presented his vision for Hyderabad. The manifesto will be made in tune with the progress of the state. While the main Opposition Congress is likely to release their manifesto after the completion of the nomination process, the TDP- BJP combine is making arrangements to announce manifesto this week.

TDP-BJP common manifesto
BJP floor leader Dr K Lakshman on Sunday said the TDP-BJP combine would present a common manifesto for the GHMC elections. Speaking to the mediapersons here, Lakshman said the seat-sharing agreement between the two parties would be reached soon. Lakshman said that the BJP-TDP combine would organise roadshows from January 28 to 30 in the GHMC area and they would be addressed by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Union Ministers M Venkaiah Naidu and Bandaru Dattatraya.

He said four public meetings would be held between January 17 and 25 in different divisions and they would be addressed by Union ministers.
The BJP leader expressed confidence that the BJP-TDP combine would win the GHMC polls and capture the post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor.