HYDERABAD: While the state government has enhanced the constituency development programme (CDP) fund for MLAs and MLCs within the GHMC limits from Rs 3 crore to Rs 5 crore annually, it is silent on the ward development programme.
The government has issued fresh guidelines for the implementation of CDP works. According to these, the GHMC commissioner will execute the work after receiving administrative approval from the collector. The payment will be made by the collector, and this condition would be stated in the tender documents, sources said.
With 60 TRS corporators, 44 from the MIM 44 and 43 of the BJP in the GHMC council, sources say there is a power struggle between the political parties for ward development funds. Despite the corporators confronting it several times, GHMC council has refused to provide Rs.1.50-crore per year ward development fund.
According to sources, the CDP will benefit ruling party MLAs more, ahead of the Assembly elections next year. However, when this newspaper tried to contact them about the ward development fund to the corporators, the GHMC authorities were unavailable for comment.
Devara Karunakar, Gudimalkapur corporator, said that the government wanted to reduce the role of corporators as the BJP had won about 50 per cent of the divisions in the GHMC. "This move is only to show the TRS highhandedness on BJP corporators," he said.
Echoing his concern, Champapet corporator Vanga Madhusudhan Reddy asked why the government took the decision just before the election year. He asked why the GHMC should execute the works of the MLA and MLC when it has an elected council of corporators.
Madhusudhan Reddy said that the corporation had been not releasing its general fund for six months fearing that corporators would dominate the MLAs in their respective constituencies.
A ruling party corporator who did not want to be named said MLAs were already treating corporators as puppets. “With the government's decision, the MLAs would not even consider us,” he rued. The TRS corporator said, “We are interacting with the public on daily. The GHMC has already stopped the ward development programme. With the latest decision corporators will have no role to play.”
