Hyderabad: High level corruption has come to light in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s sports wing.
The corporation has been conducting summer coaching camps for the past 50 years. It had 2,014 coaching camps in 2017. The online system to register for summer coaching camps was introduced in 2018, the number of coaching camps dropped to 829. But surprisingly, the amount spent on the coaching camps - Rs 1.10 crore - has remained the same in 2017 and 2018.
Highly-placed sources in the Corporation said that corporation officials have been spending whopping amounts to purchase sports material and for payment to coaches. In 2017 it had 2,065 coaches, but after introducing the online system, their number fell to 863. Sources allege that corporation officials working in the sports wing have swindled crore of rupees over the years and deliberately manipulated the number of coaches and coaching centres.
“How can a sudden fall of 1,200 happen immediately after introducing online registrations and uploading data pertaining to summer coaching camps on the GHMC official website? If the number has decreased how has the amount spent remained the same?” sources queried.
A senior GHMC official said that the online registration of summer coaching camps has been a huge success and it has managed to curb the corrupt activities in the wing. He said that the corporation has put names and phone numbers of coaches zone wise, in order to help citizens. When asked about the decrease in the number of coaching centres, he said that certain grounds were not suitable for sports and about 100 playgrounds have not been used this year, and as a result there are about 400 fewer coaching centres. When askedabout the expenditure, the official was clueless and said that data only for 2017 was available.
