Hyderabad: Polls for Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation are unlikely to be held in near future.
The Telangana Rashtra Samiti government wants to first complete the exercise of delimitation of wards and categorisation of BC voters and study the pros and cons of bifurcating or trifurcating the city into two or four municipal corporations to improve efficiency levels in municipal services delivery mechanism.
All this will take nearly a year by which time even Krishna Phase-III and Godavari Phase-I too are likely to be commissioned and water from both the projects will flow into the city taps.
Most importantly, the TRS will get a year’s time to strengthen the party base in the city before sounding the bugle for GHMC polls.
The state government wants to study the functioning and efficiency levels of municipal service delivery mechanism in Delhi and Mumbai wherein more than one municipal corporation is in place.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao will ultimately decide whether to divide the city into two or more corporations or continue with the present system.
Telangana state legislative affairs minister T. Harish Rao dropped enough hints that the TRS government is in no hurry to conduct elections to the civic body in the capital city before delimitation of wards and other process is completed.
He made it clear that the TRS government has no plans to expand the city geographically. Stating that Mr Chandrasekhar Rao’s government was releasing required money for the two prestigious water projects for the city, he exuded confidence that Krishna Phase-III will be commissioned by February 2015 and Godavari Phase-I by October 2015.
On the brand image of Hyderabad, he said: “Hyderabad is a beautiful city with over 400 years history. It has a culture of absorbing everyone irrespective of region or states. Anyone can come and live in Hyderabad.”
On the people from Seemandhra region living in Hyderabad, he said everyone can live here but it will not be tolerated if any one tries to dominate Telangana people.
On the stagnation of rain water on the roads for long durations, he said the problem was due to encroachment that has narrowed down the water discharge capacity of the drains.
The TRS government has taken a bold decision to widen the nalas to solve water stagnation problem on city roads, he said.
