Tiff over TIP likely to derail GHMC meet

HYDERABAD: The ordinary general body meeting of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), which is going to be held on Thursday after a gap of more than six months, is likely to be a stormy affair.As many as 50 corporators of surrounding municipal circles irrespective of their party affiliations have joined hands and are geared up to fight tooth and nail against the dropping of the total infrastructure project (TIP), hike in property tax and other issues.The Rs 600-crore TIP was initially meant to provide water supply and sewerage facilities in the 800 new colonies of the peripheral areas under the GHMC limits. Under TIP, 30 per cent of the infrastructure costs were to be borne by the residential welfare colonies while the department concerned had to bear the rest.However, the GHMC has changed the project proposals, including its nomenclature, and dumped the idea altogether. Instead of providing water supply and sewerage facilities, it now proposes to construct flyovers, bridges and sports complexes and undertake road-widening works. The 50 corporators from all the parties of the surrounding municipal circles want the old project plans to be restored. “When people are suffering from water shortage and lack of sewerage facilities, it is unfortunate that the GHMC authorities have dropped the TIP,” Deputy Floor Leader (TDP) Kotha Rama Rao told City Express. “We will not allow the council to run until we get an assurance from Mayor Banda Karthika Reddy and GHMC Commissioner M T Krishna Babu,” he said. The Water Board identified 700 new colonies that have come up on the city outskirts and half of them have neither drinking water supply nor sewerage facilities.