The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and the Secunderabad Cantonment Board were locked in a dispute on the point of jurisdiction over the conduct of BJP’s public meeting at Parade Grounds.
As the venue of the meeting was in the limits of the board, the GHMC refused to take up cleanliness, sanitation and its maintenance despite representations by BJP leaders. Notwithstanding the presence of the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers of several BJP-ruled States and Union Ministers at the meeting, the machinery of GHMC stayed away from arrangements on the ground that all civic works at Parade Grounds, right from sanitation, was the responsibility of the board.
The BJP leaders, however, argued that the GHMC was part of arrangements when such meetings were held in the past. The same should be ensured now. They said the GHMC had taken up sanitation of roads leading to the venue, cutting overgrown branches of trees, plugging leakages from drains, painting dividers and giving facelift to the ground. However, the board had done all this now.
Sources said a specific request made to the GHMC both by BJP and the board, to help if the ground became slushy on account of rain. The BJP even offered to bear the expenditure for the work, but to no avail. Even the animal catching unit of the GHMC near Begumpet airport, where the Prime Minister’s arrival and departure was arranged, was not deployed to catch stray dogs.
The board also took up for the first time levelling of Bison Polo Ground where the parking for vehicles coming on Rajiv highway was arranged. Water stagnation on account of rain was curbed by dumping concrete mix.
