The Council meeting of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation on Saturday ended abruptly due to unrelenting protests by the BJP corporators, but not before Mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi announced that the budget for the year 2023-24 had been passed, even before presenting it to the Council.
Right since the session began at around 10.30 a.m., the BJP corporators started protesting, initially about the recent incident in Uppal where the BRS party workers stopped the Mayor from attending an event. Claiming that the BJP corporators did not want a discussion on budget, Ms.Vijayalakshmi announced that the budget is deemed to have been approved.
Not relenting, the BJP members went up to the podium holding placards about various issues in GHMC, ranging from sanitation to lack of funds, and started giving slogans against the Mayor and BRS party. The BRS corporators responded in kind, and shouted slogans against BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
After two adjournments thanks to the raucous protests, the session was reconvened for Question Hour, again to be disrupted by the BJP members who demanded a discussion on the budget. Unable to placate them, the Mayor called it a day.
Later, speaking at a press conference, Ms.Vijayalakshmi claimed that the budget was not discussed because BJP members said they did not want it. Taking a dig at Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy for not being able to bring Central funds for municipalities in the State, she said BJP members lacked any subject, as the State government is developing the city with its own funds.
The four Congress party corporators led by D. Rajasekhar Reddy, staging a sit-in near the Mayor’s chambers, alleged collusion between BRS and BJP members in order to suppress the voice of the Opposition. Corporator Vijaya Reddy said this was the first time in the history of GHMC that budget was passed without even being presented, and that BJP’s protests were being used only as a pretext for that.
“They introduced ₹ 6,000-crore jumbo budget last year, but there were no funds even to repair the nalas. Despite listing budget discussion as an agenda item for today’s session, they skipped it. We were not even given mike to ask about it, over the excuse of BJP’s protests,” she said.
BJP members, while demonstrating near the entrance of the building, claimed that the Mayor rejected their plea to conduct the budget session for two to three days. Corporator Devara Karunakar questioned how the budget could be passed without first being customarily presented to the Council, and said they shall seek legal recourse against it. Later, the BJP corporators were physically removed from the spot and detained by the police.