The efforts make sense especially in the run-up to the Telangana Assembly elections — expected in November-December — and the Lok Sabha polls next year.
Published Oct 06, 2023 | 1:00 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 06, 2023 | 1:00 PM
GHMC Commissioner Ronald Rose
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is the civic administrator of the capital city of Telangana. The local government for the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad covers an area of 650 square kilometres, catering to a population of over 7.9 million.
Hyderabad had its own civic body in 1869, with only Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta having older municipalities. The city turned into a Municipal Corporation in 1932.
The municipal corporations of Hyderabad and Secunderabad were merged in 1955. The combined body’s boundaries were expanded in 2007 to include 12 neighbouring municipal councils and eight village panchayats.
The new municipal area came to be known as Greater Hyderabad, which is the third-largest municipal body in the country after Mumbai and Delhi.
Spread across the four districts of Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Medchal–Malkajgiri and Sangareddy, the GHMC is divided into five zones and 18 circles containing 150 municipal wards.
The GHMC, headed by Mayor Gadwal Vijaya Lakshmi, is said to be making extra efforts to include more voters in the electoral rolls.
The efforts make sense especially in the run-up to the Telangana Assembly elections — expected in November-December — and the Lok Sabha polls next year.
In an interview with South First, GHMC Commissioner Ronald Rose shed light on an exercise to include all members of a family in one polling booth.
Q. The GHMC used Ganesha festivities for voter awareness drives. Could you elaborate on it? Also, what other initiatives are in the pipeline ahead of Assembly polls?
A. The second summary revision work is going on in all the Assembly constituencies under the GHMC in the Hyderabad district. The claims and obligations deadline has ended, and we are publishing the final electoral rolls on 4 October.
The festivities are one occasion where we put up the “Check Your Vote” posters and asked people to check their names and other details. In case they wanted to make any claims or raise objections, they could submit them online using the applicable forms to the concerned electoral registration officer (ERO).
As part of the awareness campaign, we visited private and government educational institutions to encourage first-time voters and formed electoral literacy clubs (ELCs). These clubs enrolled students whose names were not included or, as per their wish, a Form 6 was submitted.
Then we interacted with 1,994 residential welfare associations (RWAs) in the Hyderabad district and ran campaigns with them for first-time voters and sensitisation of checking their votes online. Our booth-level officers also went from house to house to check the names on the voter list.
We are sending 10 lakh SMSes a week to our property tax owners to check their names or help anybody to enrol. Camps are being conducted around tourist places like Charminar and Golconda, and busy places like bus stands, railway stations, and public parks, and international events like World Disability Day.
We are also working with people from the third gender, sex workers, and people with disabilities to encourage them to get enrolled for votes. The Shaadi Mubarak and Kalyan Lakshmi beneficiaries are being contacted to ask if they can help ask people around to check their names in the voter list.
Q. There was a decrease in voter turnout in 2019 compared to 2014. Will the awareness activities change that?
A. We are trying to increase the voter percentage in Hyderabad. According to us, one of the reasons for people not coming to vote is confusion. Suppose there are three votes in a house. One person will go and check at one polling station. If they find only one family member’s name, they think that the others are not listed.
For this, we have taken up a massive exercise. We will fit the family members in one polling booth so that a family can go and return together.
The helpline number is 1950 for people who would like to inquire regarding votes, and a call centre consisting of five members has been sitting at the GHMC office.
Q. How has the GHMC gone about mapping the urban poor for the government’s 2-BHK housing scheme? What has been the progress so far?
A. The concerned collector is the person who will allot the houses in the scheme. The GHMC’s work is to construct the houses and hand them over to the authorities. The beneficiary’s certification is the duty of the collectors.
The data of people who have applied two or three years ago online or through physical forms is computerised, and then house-to-house verification is done. The online lottery is transparent in front of the people of Telangana. The house number is allotted online to avoid comments on showing favouritism.
The first two phases of the 2-BHK-house distribution have been completed. The third phase commenced on 2 October. According to the data, a total of 44,020 houses were distributed in the GHMC area under the 2BHK Housing Scheme.
Like the first two phases, ministers like Md Mahmood Ali, Sabitha Indra Reddy, and Deputy Speaker Padma Rao Goud will distribute the 2BHK houses at nine different locations. The highest number of houses — 6,067 — will be allotted at Kollur-II by Health Minister T Harish Rao to beneficiaries from Patancheru, Kukatpally, Goshamahal, Nampally, Khairathabad, and Charminar.
Meanwhile, 3,142 2BHK houses will be distributed at Dundigal, and another 3,214 houses by minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav at the Rampally location of the Medchal constituency to beneficiaries from LB Nagar, Kukatpally, Quthbullapur, and other constituencies.
Q. How does a city like Hyderabad, which aims to be world class, still have infrastructural problems (like in the monsoons every year)?
A. In any city, and not just Hyderabad, the resilience comes from the duration within which the water is cleared after the rains. In all urban areas, flooding is something that will happen when the rainfall is like a cloudburst. If there is steady rainfall, the system will handle it.
Recently, there was rainfall of 9.5 cm within 1.5 hours. No city can take such a huge flow of water. But once the rain stops, the whole water should be cleared within 30 minutes to one hour.
What we can avoid is water entering houses. The first phase of our Strategic Nala Development Programme (SNDP) has really helped. Problems that were being faced by the people in some of the areas have been addressed. Based on this, we have proposed SNDP Phase-2, and hopefully, the government will soon announce it.
The budget for Phase 1 was ₹985 crore. The GHMC has prepared proposals worth over ₹5,000 crore for Phase 2. A total of 415 works have been proposed under it. Of the total 36 works proposed in GHMC under SNDP Phase I, 14 have been completed so far and 22 works are in progress.
Q. As GMHC commissioner, could you elaborate on the pain points of fixing infrastructure issues — from stray dogs to flooding due to rains?
A. There are a lot of encroachments on the nalas (drains), which cause flooding. If we go into the Kukatpally or Quthbullapur areas of Hyderabad, half the nalas are on the roads, and people have constructed houses on top of the remaining half of them. We have to rehabilitate all these things.
Meanwhile, our drains are supposed to carry rainwater, but now discharge from sewers is also mixed into it. During the dry season, we have time to remove the silt and keep the drainage ready for the monsoon. Now, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) is also trying to upgrade its infrastructure. This parallel development will help solve the problem.
Regarding the stray dog menace, technically the number of dogs has come down over six or seven years because of sterilisation. Supreme Court guidelines are clear that we will not be able to remove a dog from a particular place. We can take them, sterilise them, and return them to the same place. That’s the only option we have.
Q. What role would you like to see citizens playing in fixing the civic issues of Hyderabad?
A. This is something we wanted to do from the very beginning. We are trying to elicit citizen feedback through the GHMC handle on X (formerly Twitter) as well as its mobile app. On X, every complaint from a citizen is taken seriously and a prompt reply is given.
Another initiative we have taken is calling the citizens directly to check whether people have come for sanitation or whether the designated vehicle has come to pick up the garbage. There is a lot of improvement we have made in house-to-house garbage collection.
We have tied up with street vendors and commercial establishments to curb the throwing of garbage on the road. Within the last month, 62,000 commercial vendors tied up with the vehicles so that the garbage is picked up from them instead of being littered on the ground.
For Ganesha idol immersion, about 500-600 of the staff were present at Tank Bund for continuously cleaning the surroundings. Firstly, they have to bring issues to our knowledge. Secondly, we are willing to explore the option where citizens can take the responsibility of doing a little bit of monitoring in their own area and keeping a check on civic issues. We are working on that. The third and most important thing citizens can do is not throw garbage outside on the roads.
Q. GHMC, too, has teething issues. Like your employees protesting over pending salaries.
A. These protests were for the regularisation of duties and consideration for the distribution of the 2 BHK houses to the employees of the GHMC. They have withdrawn the protests, and it is a policy decision. The government is looking into it.
