Officials wary of neta raj over MCH

hyderabad: the ensuing elections to the municipal corporation of hyderabad (mch) appears to be in the interest of only congress and other telangana parties. ruling party leaders and bureaucrats working in various wings of the corporation, it appears, are not in favour of elections to the corporation. senior officials in the mch on the condition of anonymity said in the absence of an elected body, the civic body secured 'best city' award to hyderabad consecutively and ensured a good image among the public.in the absence of an elected body, the municipal commissioner acted as special officer (so) and took policy decisions. under the so regime, only major files with important financial ramifications will be send to the government for its concurrence. in the elected body, the council has to pass resolutions for every decision with regard to developmental works. the mch under the regime of special officers had been quite successfully improved its revenue and streamlined functioning of various wings. the officials have introduced 'self assessment of property tax' which resulted in net increase of revenues from rs 30 crore to rs 95 crore during the last two years. similarly, developmental works such as road widening, street lighting of international standards, laying of roads, slum improvement and others were executed just as any other private corporation could do. the elections will spoil the development. all the political parties will work with their agenda rather for public welfare, a senior mch official observed. with the steep increase in revenues, the mch was able to take up several works as and when demanded by the public. the chief minister too could lure many national and international companies to set up their offices in the city such as iiit, internationally school of business and several other private software companies. the special officer regime, however, drew flak from various opposition groups, which alleged that the so had merely turned an agent for the tdp and the government. why should the begumpet road be recarpeted half-adozen times in two years at the cost of the rest of the city? in the absence of an elected body, the officials were allocating the funds at their whims and fancies, fumed an opposition leader.