GHMC budget proposals draw severe flak

Hyderabad:  The Forum for Good Governance (FGG) has disapproved of the draft budget proposals passed by the GHMC standing committee on December 20, and requested the Mayor to order revision of the annual budget 2019-20. They contended that while drainage was allocated about 4 per cent of the budget and roads 16 per cent, 2 BHK houses got about 45 per cent of the budget. The FGG has said the current budget proposal doesn’t meet the priorities of the people. It said that about half of the budget was allocated to housing, but GHMC has much higher priorities like providing basic amenities to the people in the city.

FGG said that the city lacks basic amenities, such as good roads and drainage. About 1,500 slums with a population of 25 lakh are living in inhuman conditions, and lack of public toilets is causing hardship to the people, especially women. The GHMC should be focusing on the issues and allocate more funds to these basic issues, FGG added.

The GHMC will also have to focus on rivers like Musi and Hussain Sagar, which are in poor condition, by allocating more funds, according to FGG. The NGO said that since last many years there have been a lot of variations with the estimations and actual spending of GHMC.  The GHMC will assess the actual expenditure of the budget by the time the next standing committee is scheduled to meet.