Give me real data, not fake: KTR

Young officers reportedly will monitor civic works

After registering a thumping win in the recently concluded urban body polls, the TRS seems to be geared to set up an agenda for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls not slated anytime soon.

Municipal administration and urban development (MA&UD) minister K.T. Rama Rao held a series of meetings with GHMC officials immediately after the elections and asked them to provide him “real data, not information shared with the Centre to attain a better ranking in Swachh Survekshan or to win other awards”, which most of the time proved to be fake at the ground level.

In a recent review meeting, when a zonal commissioner tried to give a fake report on number of public toilets in his zone, Mr Rama Rao immediately took him to task, asking the GHMC official “not to present fake data, which could be useful only to attain a better ranking in swachh surveys.”

The minister even said that he would “straight away walk out of the meeting to prove the numbers wrong,” claiming that there were no toilet facilities provided in petrol bunks or any of the malls as being claimed in the GHMC report.

Sources present in the meeting said that Mr Rao has been keeping a close check on every civic issue, right from quality of roads, bus shelters, bus bays, urban lung spaces, footpaths, public toilets, model markets, modern grave yards, which could hardly see any progress since four year after the conclusion of

GHMC elections in 2016.

Incidentally, as many as four IAS officers were transferred from the city immediately after the two review meetings held in the Serilingampally and Secunderabad zones. This came amid speculations that the government has appointed young, urban-based IAS officers, who had passed out from the National Institute of Technology-Warangal (NIT-W) and Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Hyderabad (JNTUH) to ensure progress of works.

Highly placed sources in the TRS and the GHMC said that the state government had already finalised an agenda for the corporation polls.

WHEN A GHMC zonal commissioner tried to give a fake report on number of public toilets, Mr Rao asked him “not to present fake data, which could be useful only to attain a better ranking in Swachh surveys.”

Since thousands of complaints were pouring in from citizens on various social media platforms, not to mention Deccan Chronicle’s popular column, Speak Out, the government had decided to lay emphasis on completing long-pending projects and basic amenities. Sadly, the GHMC commissioner Lokesh Kumar has reportedly refused to answer the queries of the people of the city, despite being requested to by this newspaper.

Sources said that instructions from the government are clear that citizens must be provided with best infrastructure, including polished roads and uninterrupted water supply during the election year. They said that marathon meetings would continue in all zones and headquarters.

The minister asked zonal update progress of all ongoing works through an internal dashboard, which would monitored every week.