Government Failed To Fund Hyderabad Development: BRS

BRS Whip and Qutubullapur MLA K P Vivekananda today criticised the Telangana government for its "failure" to release allocated funds for the development of Hyderabad.

Speaking during the Assembly session on Municipal Administration, Urban Development and Information Technology, Vivekananda said that there were significant discrepancies between budgetary allocations and actual fund disbursements for key urban projects.

He claimed that while the government had allocated substantial amounts for various city development initiatives, the actual funds released were markedly lower as mentioned below:

- Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC): Rs 2,654 crore allocated; only Rs 1,200 crore released.

- Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA): Rs 2,500 crore allocated; no funds released.

- Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB): Rs 3,385 crore allocated; Rs 800 crore provided for loans.

- Metro Rail project: Rs 1,100 crore allocated; only Rs 300 crore released.

- Musi river development: Rs 1,500 crore allocated; only Rs 80 crore released.

The BRS MLA also demanded an immediate increase in the salaries of sanitation workers to Rs 18,000 per month in line with the Congress' election campaign promise, and said that during the BRS administration former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had raised the sanitation workers' wages from Rs 7,000 to Rs 12,000.

Vivekananda also raised concerns about the outsourcing of street sweeping tasks to private firms such as the Ramky Group. He alleged that despite contracts being awarded for mechanised sweeping, the work was still being performed manually by sanitation workers, while payments continued to be made to the private company. He urged the government to address these discrepancies and ensure that funds were utilised effectively for the intended purposes.