The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Majority corporators vote against Greater Hyderabad proposal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 05, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Majority corporators vote against Greater Hyderabad proposal

Staff Reporter

Government move draws flak at MCH meet

MAKING A POINT: Congress corporators raising an issue at the general body meeting of the MCH on Thursday. Photo: K.Ramesh Babu.

HYDERABAD: The elected body in the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) voted against the Government's proposal to constitute Greater Hyderabad with overwhelming majority on Thursday. Except Congress corporators, all others termed the move politically motivated and violative of the 74th Constitutional amendment. Even Mayor T. Krishna Reddy, his deputy G. Subhash Chanderji, and former TRS Minister N. Narsimha Reddy expressed themselves against the move.

When the proposal was put to vote after a heated four-hour discussion, 75 members voted against and 15 in favour of it. Those who opposed are: MIM (40 members), TDP (17), BJP (15), TRS (2) and MBT (1).

Congress stand

The proposal received the support only from the 15 Congress members present in the House. Interestingly, none of the Congress legislators were present at the special meeting convened to seek opinion on GO 703. Party's lone MLA M. Mukesh, who turned up at the session did a vanishing act when the Greater Hyderabad proposal was put to vote.

Majority of the corporators felt the Government ought to have consulted them before issuing the GO. The interest of Hyderabad, they said, would suffer if the 12 municipalities and eight gram panchayats around the State capital were merged to form Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. "Providing even the minimum civic amenities will be difficult for an area extending more than 725 km. Besides taxes will rise and it will be a burden on the common man", the Mayor said.

The Deputy Mayor said what people required was not Greater Hyderabad but a great Hyderabad. The Government would do well to upgrade 10 surrounding municipalities into corporations instead of extending the MCH limits, he said.

MIM flays move

Majlis floor leader in Assembly, Akbaruddin Owaisi, mounted a scathing attack against the Greater Hyderabad proposal and said it was nothing but a `great betrayal' by the Congress Government. The decision was ill advised and smacked of political motive. He wondered why the Congress Government was bringing a proposal which did not figure in its party manifesto. The authorities wanted to finish off the Majlis hold in the Corporation through Greater Hyderabad. But the Majlis would still emerge as a single largest party. "However, we will not run for power or chair but for people", Mr. Akbaruddin said.

Dig at Government

The Majlis leader was heard with rapt attention as he tried to `expose the undemocratic intentions' of the Government. Though the MIM and the Congress had an alliance in the MCH, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy chose to take a unilateral decision. Even the congress legislators and corporators were not taken into confidence.

He wanted to know why the Government did not take this step before the term of the elected bodies of nine adjoining municipalities ended in March. The newly-created Patancheru and Ramchandrapuram municipalities would have the dubious distinction of getting merged with Greater Hyderabad even without going to election even once. "Government should realise the futility of the idea and drop it," Mr. Akbaruddin said.

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