BJP corporators oppose Gadwal Vijayalakshmi ’s refusal to allow journalists to view proceedings and to answer some questions
Mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi on Saturday led a very stormy session of her first ever General Body meeting of the GHMC Council, which began on a raucous note owing to her decision not to allow media to view the proceedings directly.
Her decision to allow print and electronic media representatives to view and record the meeting via live video streaming instead, earned ire from the journalists too, who staged an impromptu sit-in at the GHMC headquarters raising slogans against her and the GHMC Commissioner.
Inside the meeting hall, BJP corporators raised the issue soon after the condolence motion for the late former Chief Minister of the joint State K. Rosaiah and Mayor’s address. Commotion prevailed, but Ms.Vijayalakshmi refused to budge. Without giving any reason for barring the media, she said as a person presiding over the meeting, it was her prerogative to decide whom to allow.
Question Hour which followed was interrupted frequently with sharp protests by the BJP corporators, who opposed the Mayor’s refusal to allow answers to a few questions. The meeting had to be adjourned a couple of times when the Mayor could not handle the situation.
One such question was by corporator Vanga Madhusudhan Reddy representing Champapet constituency, about non-payment of bills to contractors for the works done. He claimed there were pending bills of ₹ 600 crore.
Mr. Madhusudhan Reddy claimed there were pending bills of ₹ 600 crore from April to November-end this year, besides the bills of last year up to March. GHMC Commissioner D.S. Lokesh Kumar said the pending bills were only ₹ 260 crore, and blamed tardy tax collections for the non-payment. Responding to this, Mr.Madhusudhan Reddy sought to know why the allocations specific to the GHMC from the Central Finance Commission were not being devolved to the corporation, forcing it to depend solely on tax collections. A total ₹ 1,453 crore accrued to the corporation over the last five years from the Finance Commission’s allocations, he said, citing from the information obtained through RTI query.
Mr. Lokesh Kumar sought the Mayor’s permission to answer the query, which was promptly denied by Ms. Vijayalakshmi who said the details would be sent to the corporator personally. Another such instance was about a question with regard to the works taken up under the Strategic Nala Development Plan (SNDP), and the timeline of completion before next monsoons. Mayor asked the SNDP Officer on Special Duty C. Vasantha to send the details to the member directly, evading a discussion about it in the meeting.
Speaking to the media outside the meeting hall, Mr. Reddy said discussion was allowed only with regard to 11 questions out of the total 96, and alleged that the media was not allowed entry because BJP members were in good numbers whose questions put the ruling party in a spot. Another member Thokala Srinivas Reddy said several dues to GHMC are from the State government too, apart from the Central allocations.
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