The stage is set for a showdown between the elected representatives to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and the officials, with Congress corporators planning to corner the Ramky Group.
According to sources, the decision came during a meeting held at Fateh Maidan Club, which was attended by all Congress corporators. One of the decisions taken at this meeting was to raise the corporators' voice against the Ramky Group, which has been reportedly blacklisted in many corporations across the country but has been given the Rs. 500 crore contract to manage solid waste by the GHMC.
Surprisingly, the decision to corner the Ramky Group comes after the Group had taken the Corporators for a '
study tour' to Agra and New Delhi last month.
According to informed sources, the resentment among the Congress corporators against the Ramky Group has been simmering ever since they were elected to the corporation. The reason for the corporators' decision to corner the Ramky Group coming after the 'study tour' is because some of them are feeling sidelined.
The study tour was undertaken in 2 batches, the first one on July 4 and the second on July 10. The corporators who were part of the first batch feel that they were given less preferential treatment than those who were taken in the second batch.
According to sources, those in the second batch were given a royal treatment while the first batch was just given a VIP treatment.
The 'preferential treatment' was the given reason at the corporators' meeting at Fateh Maidan, but the real reason, according to sources who are in the know, is that the resentment stems from the fact that the agreement between the GHMC and the Ramky Group was signed during the reign of former chief minister late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.
The elections to GHMC took place after the demise of YSR. The corporators, especially those from the Congress, now feel the agreement has had no benefit for them.
If the plans to corner the Ramky Group at the GHMC General Body meeting scheduled for August 6 are put into action, they will be met with success since the opposition parties have already voiced their reservations against the solid waste management agreement.
TDP Floor Leader in the corporation Singireddy Srinivas Reddy says, "the TDP has voiced its reservations against the agreement from the start. Such a massive project worth Rs. 500 crore had been allotted to the Ramky Group without any tenders being called."
He added, "The Ramky Group has been collecting garbage free of cost in New Delhi while they are charging Rs. 25 per house or business establishment here."
A former mayor and a Standing Committee member says that the Corporators are powerless to object to the agreement between the GHMC and Ramky Group as per the terms of this deal.
BJP Floor Leader B Prakash said that that the agreement needs to be revisited. He is of the opinion that some important and urgent changes are needed if the GHMC wants to protect its interests.
Another factor is that all GHMC employee unions are also against the agreement.
Courtesy: INN