Officials in tussle with corporators

HYDERABAD: With officials of the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad limiting the role of the Standing Committee chairman to chairing weekly meetings, some of the Congress corporators have decided to meet chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, hoping that intervention from the CM would improve things for them.
They have decided to request the chief minister to allow the Standing Committee chairman to prepare the agenda for the regular meetings.
“Taking the advantage of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Act, the officials are not allowing the elected representatives to play an active role. The Standing Committee chairman and members are not being allowed to discuss issues of public interest. Instead, they are being forced to approve the agenda prepared by officials,� an agitated corporator of the Congress party said.
When the Standing Committee chairman gave in writing to MCH officials that he and other members be allowed to raise issues, the officials wrote to the MCH standing counsel for legal opinion on the subject.
“The corporators were raising issues which they are not supposed to. For example, they were asking for a revision of unit rates, which would only benefit the contractors,� said a senior Council official.
However, the MCH commissioner has asked the Standing Committee chairman and other members to give in writing the issues which they want to discuss.
However, there is no guarantee that these issues would be listed for discussion, and if chosen, they will be done so solely on the basis of merit of the subject.
But the Congress corporators were unrelenting and did not agree to the proposal. “How can the officials decide what is important? We are elected by the people. If the chief minister fails to take action, we will call for an emergency meeting of the general body,� one Standing Committee member said.
Municipal secretary P Balakrishna said the role of the Standing Committee chairman is clear in the AP Municipal Corporations Act, but the HMC Act was silent.