The first ever meeting of the GHMC Council after election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor, will be held without much ado on virtual platform on Tuesday, amid protests by opposition.
This decision has been taken despite the absence of any provision in the GHMC Act for conducting the meeting online.
GHMC has released a statement on Monday that the special budget and general body meeting will begin online at 10.30 a.m. COVID-19 pandemic situation has been cited as the reason for the decision to go online.
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Meeting ids have been sent to all the members, the note said. Media has been excluded from covering the meeting.
Mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi will make the inaugural speech at the meeting after which the budget for the year 2021-22 will be presented. Mayor will administer oath to the newly elected corporator from Lingojiguda D. Rajashekhar Reddy, before the general body meeting takes up various public issues.
This is the first time in GHMC’s history that the council meeting will be conducted online. Though COVID-19 was prevalent during the election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor, the meeting then was conducted with physical presence of members. The Telangana Legislative Assembly meetings too were conducted physically during mid-March.
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Spread of the infection was however on the wane between January and March when the meetings were conducted.
Though GHMC Council meeting was to be conducted once in three months, officials refrained from calling for it during the first wave of the pandemic. Virtual meeting was mulled over, but it did not take off, as there was no provision in GHMC Act for the same, officials shared.
Meanwhile, several corporators from BJP addressed a letter to GHMC Commissioner D.S. Lokesh Kumar opposing the decision to conduct the council meeting online. They cited government’s statistics to say that the number of COVID-19 cases have come down due to which the lockdown has been lifted. In view of these two factors and the Chief Minister attending large public meetings, the council meeting with attendance of not more than 250 members may be conducted with physical presence, they pointed out.
If needed, the venue may be changed to any spacious premises outside GHMC, they suggested.
Uppal Corporator M. Rajitha Parameshwar Reddy questioned the rationale behind conducting the budget meeting online, at a time when the Chief Minister was attending huge public gatherings, and participating in group lunches. Minister K.T. Rama Rao too is attending meetings and launch events, she pointed out, and alleged that the government is scared of people’s issues.