Simmering feud between Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) officials and corporators was exposed during the second meeting of the elected council on Monday.
Mayor B. Kartika Reddy and Deputy Mayor Jaffer Hussain joined corporators, mainly from the ruling Congress-Majlis combine, to charge officials including Commissioner Sameer Sharma of showing ‘disrespect' to elected representatives.
“This is not a special officer's rule. No proper replies are given to members' questions,” Ms. Reddy told Mr. Sharma.
“If you do not act on grievances brought to your notice by corporators, we will have to take action against you,” she said, turning to the officials' box another time.
“You cannot run the corporation without the council or standing committee consent,” said Mr. Jaffer Hussain.
“The Mayor is not being informed about policy decisions,” alleged K. Venkatesh, Congress floor leader. It was a no holds barred verbiage onslaught as members had a field day in criticising officials.
During a debate on repatriation of long serving officials, Majlis corporator Mohd. Wajahat Ali Khan said he was ‘ashamed' there was not a single honest and responsible officer.
“We have four IAS officers. All senior officials get all facilities while class three and four staff doesn't even have tables, chairs or even toilets,” he said.
Verbal duel
But when he referred to ‘corrupt' IAS officers, Central Zone Commissioner K. Bhaskar, an IAS officer, got up angrily and told him not to make ‘sweeping' remarks and that all IAS officers were not corrupt. That prompted Mr. Sharma, who already had a few run-ins with the Mayor, to stand up: “You have said enough. I have not come here to listen to this.”
“It was wrong to say everyone is corrupt. You cannot generalise. We have led an honest life. You don't know how we live with our salaries. I have not spoken about corporators lives,” he said.
MLA intervenes
Majlis Nampally MLA Virasat Rasool Khan intervened and said on his party's behalf, the corporator's remarks should be treated withdrawn. They had complete faith in officials though there could some ‘black sheep', the Majlis MLA said and cooled down tempers.
