The Great Hyderabad Municipal Corporation(GHMC) Standing committee approval of giving iPhone 12 pro max to its member has been put on hold. Arvind Kumar IAS Hyderabad tweeted “Have spoken with Commissioner GHMC & this decision of the standing committee (to buy iPhones) has been put on hold indefinitely”.
The outgoing standing committee of the GHMC headed by the mayor Bonthu ram Mohan had gifted themselves the iPhone 12 pro max for having approved the annual budget estimates of the civic body.
This came to light when Telangana state revenues have taken a serious hit. Due to the Covid-19 crisis and Hyderabad had witnessed the worst flood that caused a lot of suffering and enormous damage to the residence of Hyderabad.
The standing committee whose term of office is to end in February 2021 met on Thursday and has passed 14 resolutions and approved a ₹ 5.600crore annual budget for the financial year 2021-2022.
BJP spokesperson Krishnasagar said, “It is this kind of brazen abuse of power by the TRS that has led to the people rejecting them in the GHMC elections,”.
Krishnasagar also said that “When the GHMC has no money to even pay salary to staff, who has given them the right to gift themselves, using public money?”
Mayor Bonthu Ram Mohan said the “tradition” of giving gifts in the past for passing the budget and said this time Iphones should be gifted to the standing committee members.
Bonthu Ram Mohan recommended the same iPhone pro max 512 GB to staff, including an assistant commissioner, personal secretary to the mayor, and additional personal secretary to the mayor.
The same proposal of gifting the iPhone to the committee was made in June but did not get approved. The committee had agreed to buy 17 iPhones 12 pro max of 512 GB for its members. The cost of each mobile comes around INR.1.6 lakh. A budget of INR.27.23 lakh was been given for purchasing the mobiles.
The Telangana state government had promised to pay flood relief of ₹ 10,000 to every flood-hit family but many still complain they haven’t got the compensation.
