Hydedrabad : Telangana BJP today strongly opposed the state Congress government’s decision to expand the jurisdiction of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) by merging 27 local bodies located within the Outer Ring Road (ORR).
Addressing a press conference at state party here, Party President N Ramchander Rao said the BJP opposes the decision to merge 20 Municipalities and 7 Municipal Corporations areas into GHMC to create a “Metropolitan City”. He said decentralization was necessary for effective implementation of administration, but the centralization decision by the Congress government would harm the public interest. Before the press conference the state BJP chief held a meeting with BJP corporators and key leaders and discussed in details on the issue.
He pointed out that the merger would bring over 2 crore people under GHMC’s jurisdiction and argued that the cash-trapped GHMC currently lacks the necessary facilities to manage such a large population and the move would only lead to increased taxes on the people in the newly merged areas.
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Rao questioned the logic of the merger noting that the existing municipalities were already struggling with severe issues like lack of sanitation, poor roads, drainage problems, ineffective waste management and negligence in streetlights and water works. Merging them into a cash-strapped GHMC would not solve these problems but would instead make administration completely difficult to meet needs of citizens.
The state BJP chief accused the Congress government of following the “Tughlaq-like policies” of the previous BRS government and criticized the decision for being taken without seeking public opinion or conducting an all-party meeting. He alleged the decision was solely motivated by the interests of the real estate mafia.
Rao alleged that Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s administration appears to be focused more on real estate activities than governance, referencing the controversial HILT (Hyderabad Industrial Lands Transformation) policy aimed at transferring over 9,000 acres of land. Terming the decision as a political motivated the BJP President demanded that the Congress government immediately withdraw this unscientific and illogical decision.
BJP MLCs Anji Reddy and Malka Komaraiah, state vice president Banda Karthika Reddy, chief officials spokesperson and Media Incharge N V Subhash, former MLA NVSS Prabhakar, GHMC floor leader Shankar Yadav, deputy floor leader Radha Dheeraj Reddy and Narasimha Reddy were also present at the press conference.
