The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Government on the 19th of December, rolled back the order of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to gift an iPhone 12 to its 17 outgoing members.
The move to gift a brand new Apple iPhone 12 pro max of 512 GB was criticised by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP.)
According to sources, on the 18th of December, the Mayor of GHMC Bonthu Ram Mohan chaired a Standing Committee meeting.
During the meeting, Mr. Mohan announced the gift for the 17 corporators who are also a Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) members.
Mayor Bonthu Ram Mohan placed the gift (Apple iPhone 12) in the agenda as an extra item and was given approval by the Standing Committee. The ‘gifts’ to the corporators would cost the exchequer Rs. 27,23,740, with each iPhone costing about Rs 1.6 lakhs.
However, the move of the Standing Committee, which is also the highest committee in the Civic Body was criticised by the BJP.
The BJP Spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao alleged the TRS Party of abuse of power.
Krishna Saagar Rao said, “BJP feels this move is atrocious, irresponsible and a brazen abuse of power by GHMC Mayor and Deputy Mayor in passing a resolution in the standing committee of GHMC to gift the 17 corporators, who are outgoing, who lost their election. Each iPhone costs around Rs 1.6 lakh, which is a total of about Rs 30 lakh. Just imagine the degree of irresponsibility and the misuse of public money by the TRS corporators.” He further added, “ When GHMC is reeling under financial stress and when they are unable to pay their own employees salaries. It’s a shame that you are spending public money like water.”
The BJP also demanded the GHMC roll back its decision immediately.
The BJP further said, when they come in power in February, they would stop such unilateral decisions taken under the leadership of the TRS.
Within 24 hours, the Telangana Government halted the decision to gift an iPhone. The decision is said to be a result of the online criticism of the BJP.
Many BJP leaders in Telangana took to their Twitter handle and lashed out at the TRS and the GHMC for wasting public money.
Initially, the GHMC Standing Committee decided to gift iPhones to all the 150 corporators, but due to the financial crunch, they decided to gift the phone to only 17 corporators.
The current term of the GHMC Standing Committee is ending on the 10th of February 2021.
Stay tuned for further updates.
