GHMC in debt trap, come to its rescue, Akbar urges govt

Hyderabad: AIMIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi urged the State government to come to the rescue of Municipalities particularly GHMC, which has accumulated debts of thousands of crores.

Taking part in the debate on the vote-on-account budget in the Assembly on Wednesday, Akbar said that the State government’s commitment to strengthen the Municipalities does not reflect in the budget. He emphasised how the GHMC has accumulated the pending bills of at least Rs 1,000 crore from contractors, discouraging them from taking up new projects. Urging Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, who is holding the portfolio of MA & UD, he said that the corporation was forced to pay Rs 68 crore as interest alone, as it has obtained a loan of more than Rs 6,374 crore from different banks. "CM, who is holding the portfolio of MA&UD, should have given priority and toned up. The commitment of the government does not reflect in the budget. GHMC has taken up massive loans, and it did not run like it should have been (by the previous government),” he said.

Akbar also questioned the government for ignoring the budget allocations to TMREIS institutions when other Gurukula institutions were earmarked under the budget. “It could have been unintentional, but I would like to know why Minority institutions were ignored in this vote-on-account budget allocation,” he asked.

The MIM floor leader, who earlier in this session raised the issue of hardships faced by students as college managements were holding up their certificates owing to non-clearance of fees reimbursement funds, reiterated and urged the government to come up with a solution. “There is an urgent need to resolve this. The government could at least write to the private colleges to not hold the certificates of students who are finding it difficult to apply for jobs and visas,” he urged.