The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) council approved a budget of ₹ 11,460 crore for its extended region for the financial year 2026-27 at its final general body meeting on Saturday.
Members of the council, including corporators and legislators, raised several important questions on ambiguous parts of the budget proposals, which were not answered by Commissioner RV Karnan, who presented the budget, and Additional Commissioner (Revenue) Anurag Jayanti, who read a copy of the budget.
MIM legislator Mohammed Majid Hussain and BJP corporator Sravan Vurapalli questioned how the budget would be distributed among the three corporations after the bifurcation of the GHMC. Mr. Hussain questioned the very validity of the delimitation and merger, which was not referred to the Standing Committee before being presented to the council.
Mr. Hussain and Mr. Vurapalli rejected the GHMC’s claim that property tax had not been increased in the last 20 years and pointed out that the tax was recalibrated so that even poor people ended up paying more.
Mr. Hussain questioned the capital expenditure planned for this year, of which ₹1,090 crore went to flyover projects around KBR Park, and asked how the government planned to develop infrastructure in the rest of the city.
Recalling the death of two persons in Afzal Sagar nala, he sought to know how the government plans to construct drains and footbridges, rainwater harvesting pits in the city and supply drinking water to the areas that were earlier comprised of 27 merged municipalities or corporations.
He said that 70% of infrastructure development works in these regions have not yet been completed, no allocation of budgetary funds to ULBs has been ensured. He and Mr. Vurapally both sought the actual property tax data and other details from the ULB to be submitted.
Mr. Hussain also questioned the rationale behind allocating ₹9,200 crore for the 650 square kilometers of the former GHMC area and just ₹2,260 crore for the 1,400 square kilometers of the newly merged area.
Mr. Vurapalli also asked why no breakdown of income and expenditure of the newly merged ULBs was provided even though their budget is shown separately. Pointing out that the salaries of employees in all ULBs were paid from the state government treasury, he said the GHMC too should demand payment of salaries from the same source. He also demanded an increase in the salaries of external workers.
He sought to know the truth about the alleged proposal to assign the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority, the authority over construction projects exceeding 10 floors in height in the merged ULBs. If true, it is a very inappropriate proposal and every paisa from the GHMC area should belong to the city, he said.
The GHMC receives a pittance from its estates as rent, he said, stressing the need to reclaim the properties and allocate them to the deserving poor. Mr. Vurapalli also sought to clarify the drastic changes in several heads compared to the previous budget.
The council also paid tribute to BJP corporator from Champapet, Vanga Madhusudan Reddy, who passed away recently.
Published – 31 Jan 2026 20:14 IST
