Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation officials earned the ire of Municipal Administration Minister K.T. Rama Rao, who expressed his anger over the condition of city roads.
The Minister held a review meeting on Tuesday with the officials of various departments including the HMDA and Hyderabad Metro Rail and pulled up the engineering officials of the GHMC for their failure in ensuring the longevity of roads.
Govt. image takes a beating
He is also learnt to have told the officials that the image of the Telangana Government was taking a beating because of pathetic roads. He instructed the officials to immediately repair all the damaged roads on a war-footing and asked them to engage the services of the staff from other departments also till all the works are completed.
The Minister told the officials that the condition of the roads was the result of corruption and inferior quality of materials. It was also decided to have 150 special teams in each division to exclusively work on maintaining the roads.
He also warned that if the officials do not discharge their duties properly and do not prevent damages to roads, serious disciplinary action would be taken.
An expert committee would be constituted to monitor and guide the GHMC in the maintenance of roads.
This committee would meet every month and advice the GHMC on maintaining the city roads. Directing the officials to fill potholes within a week, he also asked them to come up with long-term and short-term strategies to address the issue.
Congress protest
Meanwhile, criticism related to the poor functioning of the GHMC continued. On Tuesday, dozens of Congress party workers held a protest outside the GHMC headquarters.
They alleged that the TRS party had failed in its promise of developing Hyderabad into a global city. Former MLA Sudheer Reddy said that GHMC was never so inefficient and cited the recent deaths caused due to bad roads, overflowing nalas and house collapses.
Later, the protesters gave a representation to the senior officials of the GHMC.
Minister blames officials for damaged roads, says poor quality of material used
