The Mayor, Majid Hussain, has urged Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on Monday to extend the last date for receiving suggestions and objections for the draft metropolitan plan prepared by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) by another month, i.e. till February 21.
The government had earlier increased the timeline to January 21 following the general strike called by the government employees. The draft plan along with the executive summary and details of the developmental and zonal regulations were released in July last year.
The plan area includes the extended area of HMDA (5,018 sq.km), Outer Ring Road Growth Corridor (330 sq.km), parts outside ORR of erstwhile HUDA (432 sq.km) and erstwhile Hyderabad Airport Development Authority (185 sq.km).
Mr. Hussain also sought conduct of district-level workshops and consultative meetings with the stakeholders concerned on the draft plan covering the near 6,000 sq.km area of the city in the districts of Hyderabad, Medak and Nalgonda too as it was done for the districts of Ranga Reddy and Mahabubnagar few months ago.
The Mayor made these observations during the HMDA meeting held under the chairmanship of Mr. Kiran Kumar Reddy. He also brought to the notice of the Chief Minister that while the draft plan and the summary report as well as the regulations had been brought out in English and Telugu, the Urdu translation had not been published and was also missing on the official website.
Urdu translation
Therefore, he requested an Urdu translation of the draft plan be made available and also uploaded on the HMDA website since a significant section of the population was Urdu speaking not only in the GHMC area but also within HMDA. This would enable Urdu speaking populace to also register their respective suggestions and objections.
Meanwhile, Telugu Desam floor leader Singireddy Srinivasa Reddy appealed to the Mayor to increase the number of sanitation units near all public hospitals and markets. Welcoming the move to scrap the contractor system and allotting the sanitation units to the self-help groups or a group of persons, he said the extra units could be pressed into service near areas like that of the Osmania General Hospital, rythu bazars, Mahabub Mansion, Osmangunj and the likes.
He also called for issuance of identity cards to all the workers, health camps besides ensuring that PF and ESI contributions were promptly remitted into the government accounts punctually.
