The hurdles for the general body meeting of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) have been cleared and the meeting may be conducted post the upcoming Legislative Assembly sessions.
An all-party meeting convened by Mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi on Tuesday about the conduct of the council meeting ended on a positive note, with the GHMC Commissioner Ronald Rose approving both the budget session and general body meeting. February 19 has been fixed as the tentative date for the meeting, after considering the possibility of extended Assembly session. It is learnt that an exhaustive session over two days may be held to compensate for the delay.
The meeting reportedly began with corporators from various parties questioning about the delay in conducting the council meeting, and the disorganised way the meetings had been conducted in the past two years.
Malkajgiri corporator V. Sravan pointed out that the combined duration of the general body meetings over the last two years was less than 30 hours, while the budget last year was passed without proper procedure. No policy decisions were made by the council whatsoever, which have been forwarded to the State government. As per sources, the mayor initially did not sound positive about the general body meeting, as she blamed the commissioner for the delay. However, even as the session was in progress, the commissioner’s approval for the budget session as well as the general body meeting was received, which ended the logjam.
Responding to complaints by the corporators, that their listed questions were not discussed during the previous meeting, Ms. Vijayalakshmi asked them to send the questions early so that they may be sent to officials seeking answers. Recently, Mr. Sravan filed a writ petition in the High Court seeking directions to GHMC for conducting the council meeting.
Five months have passed since the last council meeting was held in GHMC, even as the rule book says it should be conducted every three months. The meeting could not be held on time first due to model code of conduct for State Assembly elections, and then due to Praja Palana programme.
BRS corporators S. Hema, B. Geeta, Praveen Mudiraj, Satish Goud, Sindhu Reddy, BJP corporators Sravan, adn V.Madhusudan Reddy, and Congress corporators Rajitha Parameshwar Reddy, Vijaya Reddy, C.N.Reddy, and MIM corporators Mirza Mustafa Baig, and Syed Minhajuddin attended the meeting apart from Deputy Mayor Srilatha Shoban Reddy.
