The Times of India  11.08.2010

Now, medical, phone reimbursements for GHMC corporators

HYDERABAD: After getting approval for laptops for their personal use, corporators of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) are now demanding more facilities.

On the second day of the meet, the GHMC council, headed by mayor Banda Karthika Reddy, has resolved to provide reimbursement of medical and telephone bills for corporators, and build a guest house.

It may be recalled that on the first day of the council meeting held on August 6, the corporators had resolved to extend normal works up to Rs one lakh on a nomination basis.

The public representatives said there should be a guest house and club for the municipal corporation along with the mayor’s official bungalow. “Mayors and other officials of other cities visit our Hyderabad Corporation, but we do not have any guest house,” the corporators said.

After taking their views into consideration, the corporation resolved to look for a site to house a club-cum-guest house and official bungalow for the mayor. Mayor Banda Karthika Reddy, a couple of months ago, had asked the state government to allot Indira Park office as mayor’s bungalow. But the issue has been pending with the government.

Riyasatnagar corporator Mirza Mustafa Baig raised the issue of medical reimbursement to all corporators. He said during the previous council, the corporators had medical reimbursement facility and same should be extended now also. The members demanded Rs 2,500 be given towards telephone bills to every corporator. In the previous council, the corporators used to get only Rs 1,000 per month. As of now, the corporation has been paying telephone bills to officials with a ceiling limit of Rs 1,000, which would be directly paid by the corporation.

Expressing their unhappiness over maintenance of traffic signals, several corporators demanded GHMC should seek a share in penalties being collected by the traffic police. “The corporation has been spending lakhs of rupees towards maintenance of traffic signals. However, the traffic police instead of regulating traffic are putting more efforts on collection of penalties from motorists,” former mayor and MIM corporator Mir Zulfeqar Ali said.

On the issue of statues, TDP corporators demanded that statutes of all national leaders, including B R Ambedkar, Jyothirao Phule, and Babu Jagjeevan Ram, should be erected on the GHMC headquarter premises along with former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.

The GHMC standing committee had, a month ago, resolved to erect a YSR statue and sent a proposal to the state government. The mayor said she was ready to discuss the proposal in the standing committee and later in the council meeting.

GHMC commissioner Sameer Sharma said a special drive would be taken up in the city to shift beggars to rehabilitation centres. Balkampet corporator N Seshu Kumari raised the issue of beggars saying that they had been creating nuisance at public places particularly at traffic junctions.