The mandate of the 17 outgoing members expires in February.
The decision of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to give seventeen of its outgoing members, including the mayor and deputy mayor, a new 512GB Apple iPhone 12 pro max, has been denounced by the opposition. The exorbitant ‘gift’ of the GHMC to these members, whose term ends in February 2021, was approved this Thursday by the permanent commission, which is the highest authority of the civic body. The 17 corporations, which are part of the permanent committee, belong to TRS.
The standing committee meeting was chaired by Mayor Bonthu Ram Mohan. This item was placed on the agenda as an additional item and was approved by the committee. The ‘gifts’ will cost the treasury 27.23,740 rupees, with each iPhone costing around 1.6 lakh rupees and comes at a time when the civic body is facing a funding crisis.
The move was severely criticized by the opposition and BJP spokesman Krishna Saagar Rao accused the TRS party of a blatant abuse of power. “BJP feels this move is egregious, irresponsible and a blatant abuse of power by the GHMC Mayor and Vice Mayor by passing a resolution in GHMC’s standing committee to give gifts to the 17 outgoing corporate who lost their election. Each iPhone costs around Rs 1.6 lakh, which is a total of about Rs 30 lakh. Imagine the degree of irresponsibility and misuse of public money by TRS corporations, ”criticized Krishna Saagar Rao.
He further added: “When GHMC falters under financial stress and when they are unable to pay the wages of their own employees. It is a pity that you are spending public money as if it were water ”.
BJP has demanded that GHMC reverse its decision immediately. Krishna Saagar Rao added that after the BJP comes to power in February, they will stop these kinds of one-sided decisions by TRS corporations.
Municipal elections for GHMC were held on December 1. TRS, which had swept the polls in 2015, managed to win just 56 seats this time, just shy of the numbers required to win the post of mayor and deputy mayor on its own. The BJP gained more ground in Hyderabad, going from 4 to 48 seats, while the AIMIM won 44, the Congress only obtained 2 seats.
Read: Telangana BJP Chief Visits Bhagyalakshmi Temple with New GHMC Corporate
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