Eighteen of the recently elected heads of local bodies in Telangana and 16 from those of Andhra Pradesh are facing various criminal cases against them, some of them serious, as revealed by the Forum for Good Governance (FGG) here on Wednesday.
The people’s representatives include mayors, deputy mayors, ZP chairpersons & vice-chairpersons, and municipal chairpersons and vice-chairpersons. In Telangana, majority of them are from the TRS, and in AP, from the TDP. The total number of cases is 31 for Telangana and 23 for AP.
Four criminal cases are pending against the municipal vice-chairperson of Bhainsa, Jabir Ahmed from MIM, out of which one is related to murder. Earlier, he was acquitted in 12 cases, informed the Secretary of FGG, M .Padmanabha Reddy.
ZP vice-chairperson of Adilabad M. Raji Reddy has six cases against him as per the list, while the ZP Chairperson of Anantapur Dudekula Chaman Saheb from the TDP faces a murder charge.
One mayor each from Telangana and AP, S. Ravinder Singh of the TRS from Karimnagar, and K. Suresh Babu of YSR Congress from Kadapa have criminal cases pending against them.
Six chairpersons of various municipalities, including A. Ganesh from Nirmal, C.Vidyavati from Kagaz Nagar, R. Manisha from Adilabad, S.Venugopal from Korutla, M. Rama from Yellandu, and Naganna Goud from Aize were among those with criminal record in Telangana.
In AP, three municipal chairpersons, U. Gurivi Reddy from Proddatur, B. Srinivas from Tadepalligudem, B.Venkata Lakshmi from Tadipatri, all representing the TDP, have cases against them.
Deputy mayors listed include G. Ramesh representing Karimnagar, S. Shankar, representing Ramagundam, R. Ramana from Vijayawada, and M. Dwarakanath from Nellore.
There are no ZP chairpersons with criminal records in Telangana, while AP has four, respectively from Anantapur, Nellore, Vizianagaram, and West Godavari, who constitute 33 per cent of the total, Mr. Reddy said.
Seven municipal vice-chairpersons respectively from Bhainsa, Sattupalli, Wanaparthy, Mancherial, Mahabubnagar, Kamareddy, and Bhoopalpally and two ZP vice-chairpersons, respectively from Karimnagar, and Adilabad are in the list released at a press conference here.
In AP, five municipal vice-chairpersons respectively from Tadipatri, Pitapuram, Proddatur, Pulivendula, and Jammalamadugu, and one ZP vice-chairperson from Ongole are reportedly implicated in criminal cases.
Releasing the list, Mr. Padmanabha Reddy remarked that a few municipal chairpersons have bind over orders against them, and quite a few have non-bailable warrants.
Retired High Court Judge and president of the Forum Reddappa Reddy said criminal record of local body representatives assumes significance because they could grow to be MLAs in future.
Vice-president Rao Chelikani demanded that local body elections be conducted without stated party affiliations, and ward committee system be revived.
