The yearly grind of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) at this time of the year with regard to the corporation’s budget proposals has come to a grinding halt owing to several factors.
Usually, the proposals are prepared, and presented before the Standing Committee by November 10. After the committee’s approval, the proposals are presented before the GHMC’s council, which votes for them to be sent to the government before January 10. After the proposals are approved, the budget should be discussed and passed by the council before February 20.
This time round, even while the State budget session is approaching, the proposals have not yet been prepared, let alone being presented before the standing committee and the council.
“The previous standing committee’s term was over in November. Elections have to be conducted for constitution of the new committee, which was not done in November owing to Model Code of Conduct for the State Legislative Assembly elections,” informed an official from GHMC.
Standing committee with 15 members is elected by the corporators once every year. This time, after the Assembly elections, constitution of the new government followed, and immediately later, the entire GHMC machinery got busy first with ‘Prajavani’ and then with the ‘Praja Palana’ programme conducted across the divisions.
“An uninterrupted period of 25 days is needed to complete the standing committee election process, which was not available,” said a highly placed official.
It has been a full five months since the last GHMC Council’s meeting has taken place, despite the mandatory three-month period under which the meeting should be conducted.
The GHMC would need all the support it can get from the government to run the show without a hitch, especially in view of the enormous debt burden it is under thanks to various road development projects taken up by the previous regime across the city.
An official shared under the condition of anonymity that the debt servicing would cost ₹125 crore every month, which is impossible to meet from the regular income generated through property tax, building permission fee, and trade licence fee.
Officials informed that budget meetings are scheduled with the government at the end of the month, when the current financial situation would be discussed.
