Politics help to get amenities

South gets more focus than financially key west

A series of festivals over the year has helped in the upkeep of civic infrastructure in older parts of the city, which are incidentally the lowest contributor in terms of property tax.

The second highest contributors of tax — the west zone — however faced the neglect of the municipal officials, leading to bumpy roads and unkept civic infrastructure.

GHMC has collected `71.55 crore from 1.02 lakh properties in the South Zone, comprising mostly Old City and adjoining areas.

Compared to this, the civic body collected `303.85 crore in property tax from the west zone. The Central Zone contributed the highest amount of `378 crore.

According to official data, over 1.3 lakh properties in the south zone are yet to assessed for levying the tax. In terms of expenditure, GHMC has spent the most in the south. Official data claims that the civic body has spent `50 crore for road repairs and special arrangements during festivals including Bonalu, Ganesh, Ramadan and Muharram.

In the city’s cash cow — the west zone — the GHMC failed to spend even `10 crore for annual maintenance, making the condition of roads in the high profile area in the city get worse.

According to officials, festivals, active lawmakers from the area, and other influential people are the factors for the continuous focus on the south zone.

Officials claim that there were instances of recarpeting roads in a

matter of a few weeks due to festivals.

Even though the west zone is the highest revenue source for the civic body after the central zone, several complaints have been pouring in from citizens pertaining to damaged roads.

A senior GHMC official said that the civic body only has knee jerk reactions rather than an action plan for the entire year.

The official said that the staff from engineering, town planning, revenue and other wings have been deployed on election duty, which has paralysed every department.

The official admitted to unequal development in the city. The issue will continue until the corporation chalks out a yearly action plan or until there is a strong demand from citizens about development, the official said.