GHMC Council meeting begins and ends in chaos
BJP and MIM members come to blows when the latter objected to their party chief Asaduddin Owaisi’s caricature
Pandemonium prevailed during the 9th general body meeting of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), leading to its conclusion without any discussion on the agenda items on Saturday.
The meeting started on a raucous note as the BRS corporators began to protest demanding the resignation of Mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi who defected to the Congress party, leading to the first of the four adjournments of the day.
After the Council met again, the Mayor could convince the parties to let the House pay tributes to the deceased members. However, she was stalled from delivering her customary speech which got disrupted by members from BJP who demanded that condolences be taken up first.
Following this, the deaths of BRS MLA G. Lasya Nanditha, Congress leader D. Srinivas and MIM corporator Shaheen Begum were condoled by the House.
BRS members continued their protest later, not allowing the question hour to progress. The Mayor initiated the introduction of the GHMC Commissioner Amrapali Kata and other officials who had recently assumed their respective charges.
Midway through the introductions, BJP members rose again in protest demanding the appearance of the Managing Director of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board, instead of the directors, who were present. Holding placards, they stormed to the podium, when the meeting was adjourned again.
During the adjournment, members from BJP and MIM came to blows, when the latter objected to their party chief Asaduddin Owaisi’s caricature on the former’s placards along with those of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and BRS chief K. Chandrashekhar Rao.
MIM members led by Syed Sohail Quadri snatched the placards and tore them down, and gave slogans against BJP. In retort, BJP members shouted ‘Jai Shriram’, and both sides tore the agenda copies.
This, together with BRS members resuming their protest, led to adjournment yet again. The newly elected BJP MP from Malkajgiri Eatala Rajender arrived at this juncture, and left soon after.
Thereafter, it was a virtual free for all, with BRS & Congress corporators, and BJP & MIM corporators running two separate floors of ruckus, indulging in sloganeering and counter sloganeering.
It was a full half an hour before Ms.Vijayalakshmi resumed the chair and reprimanded both BRS and BJP members for their behaviour. However, her repeated appeals could not bring the house to order. She called the meeting to a closure before lunch hour, but not before announcing that all agenda items are deemed to have been approved.
During her address, commissioner Amrapali dwelt on GHMC’s preparations for the festival season, work on sanitation improvement, campaign against Dengue, and monsoon related works. GHMC is trying to find ways for additional revenue generation, and for payment to contractors, she said.
Ms.Vijayalakshmi, speaking to media after the meeting, said efforts are being made to convince the government for granting local area funds to the tune of ₹50 lakh each to the corporators.
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