BJP slams govt. over GHMC expansion, calls move ‘real estate-driven’

The Telangana BJP strongly opposed the 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) on Friday.

The government is following the ‘Tughlaq-like policies’ of the BRS government, charged party president N. Ramchander Rao and questioned why an all-party meeting was not held or public opinion not taken before arriving at the decision ‘solely motivated by the interests of the real estate mafia’.

Addressing a press conference at the State party office here, he said the BJP opposes the decision of merger of 20 municipalities and seven municipal corporations areas into GHMC to create a ‘Metropolitan City’ since it feels decentralization is necessary for effective administration.

Earlier, Mr. Rao held a meeting with party corporators and other key leaders to discuss in detail on the issue to forge out a strategy. The merger would bring over two crore people under GHMC’s jurisdiction when the cash-strapped municipal body lacks the necessary wherewithal to manage such a large population and expressed the fear that the move would only lead to increased taxes.

He noted that the existing municipalities are already struggling with lack of basic amenities like adequate sanitation, roads, drainage, waste management, streetlights and drinking water. A merger is not going to solve any of these civic issues but will only make it difficult for the GHMC to to effectively meet the needs of citizens.

The BJP chief alleged that Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s administration appears to be focused more on real estate activities than governance and referred to the controversial HILT (Hyderabad Industrial Lands Transformation) policy aimed at converting over 9,000 acres of land. Terming the decision as ‘politically motivated’, he demanded the government to immediately withdraw this ‘unscientific and illogical decision’.

In a separate press statement, officials spokesperson N.V. Subhash ridiculed proposed ‘Deeksha Divas’ of BRS and termed it as ‘Bhiskha Divas’ Telangana as the K. Chandrashekhar Rao government made a revenue surplus State into a debt-ridden one. “Telangana was formed not only with the ‘Deeksha’ of Mr. Chandrashekhar Rao, it was bifurcated from A.P. with the full cooperation of BJP as it had supported the bill moved in Parliament,” he said and added that BRS had lost the people’s confidence.