Hyderabad: In spite of the government’s directions to discourage the use of plastic, GHMC officials have used polythene sheets to cover statues of political leaders who have political backgrounds in the Quthbullapur constituency.
As part of its guidelines for the implementation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), the Election Commission had asked political parties and their candidates to try and avoid the use of plastic/polythene for preparation of posters, banners in the interest of environmental protection. It also asked the officials to avoid using plastic material at the polling stations, counting stations keeping in mind plastic ban and concerns over environment.
The officials, however, covered former chief minister N.T. Rama Rao's statues at IDPL Colony with polythene covers. Similarly, the statues of the former Qutbullahpur municipality chairman K. Pandu Goud’s statue located just a few metres away from GHMC office was also covered with plastic material.
Netizens, however, were shocked by GHMC officials, who are responsible for the implementation of MCC in Hyderabad, flouting the poll panel’s guidelines which they were tasked to uphold.
Attempts to contact additional chief electoral officer Lokesh Kumar, who took up several programmes in banning plastic in Hyderabad when he was GHMC commissioner, failed as he did not respond to calls.
The GHMC officials at Quthbullapur, however, said they did not receive any specific directions on the plastic ban by the Election Commission officials and said that they would remove the plastic material within a month after the elections are over.
