: At least 11 municipal councils and nagar panchayats in Telangana have been categorised as chronic defaulters in paying the arrears to the T-TRANSCO for several years. Interestingly, all the urban local bodies in the new State owe as much as Rs. 67 crore to the power utility.
The Municipal Administration and Urban Development department in a presentation to the Telangana Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao, sought additional funds to be granted from the government as one-time settlement in view of the meagre financial resources of the ULBs.
Mahabubnagar, Kalwakurthy, Gajwel, Siddipet, Narsampet, Yellandu, Nirmal, Bhainsa, Mandamarri and Shadnagar municipalities besides Nizamabad Municipal Corporation have been listed as chronic defaulters.
During the review meeting, several startling issues came out which included severe shortage of municipal staff across the 10 districts. Out of the 289 posts of municipal commissioners, there were only 75 regular commissioners including that of GHMC. The authorities wanted immediate filling up of 214 vacant posts. With a view to expanding the activities of the department, it was proposed that the Heads of Departments and Regional offices should be strengthened.
Another proposal is to levy property tax in all the 27 newly formed municipalities and ULBs where gram panchayats were merged as per the AP Municipal Act, 1965. An amount of Rs. 20.29 crore is required to procure infrastructure for solid waste management, which includes vehicles for collection, transportation of waste, acquiring and developing land for processing and disposal of waste in the 27 municipalities.
Officials also mooted establishment of institutional set-up with technical cell at the state level to support the ULBs in implementation of solid waste management and sanitation. It was suggested that identification and earmarking of land in the master plan for establishment of regional processing and landfill facilities should be done immediately. Efforts are also on to prepare City Sanitation plans as per the National Urban Sanitation policy for achieving open defecation-free towns in 64 municipal bodies.
