HYDERABAD: Municipal Administration Minister K.T. Rama Rao has asserted that the Government is committed to fulfil the assurances it gave to people before the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections and it has sanctioned over ₹900 crore for the development of the GHMC in the last two years.
The Minister said developing the city to international standards would not be possible overnight and it would take around seven years for putting in place the necessary infrastructure to meet global standards. The GHMC received ₹255 crore during 2007-08, ₹490 crore (2008-09), ₹190 crore (2009-10), ₹ 253 crore (2010-11), ₹191 crore (2011-12), ₹235 crore (2012-13) and ₹249 crore (2013-14).
“Since it took over the reins, the TRS Government has released ₹356 crore and ₹385 crore exclusively for constructing new roads in the last two years,” he said replying to a query during the Question Hour in the Legislative Assembly on Monday. He said the Government was ushering in reforms to streamline and strengthen the working of the corporation and a new bill on constitution of a tribunal to deal with building permissions was on the anvil in the current session itself.
Hinderences to development
He explained to the members that though road works were being taken up by the corporation, they were getting damaged because of the overflowing of sewerage in several areas. Over 200 hotspots of water logging had been identified and efforts like white topping were underway to avoid the problem.
On the criticism by the BJP members that the TRS failed to implement its 100-day programme for developing infrastructure in the GHMC limits, he said the programme for improving transport, sanitation and other amenities as announced by the Government was under implementation. There were, however, problems like encroachments and court cases that were hindering the development plans.
BJP member G. Kishan Reddy expressed concern that there was no coordination between the RTC and GHMC in taking up construction of bus bays. Further, the public toilets built alongside the road were not put to use because of their location.
Another BJP member K. Laxman lamented that the Minister himself was expressing helplessness in taking up works because of the problems in the system.
