It is common place to see political leaders and
authorities being petition to release funds for various projects. But rarely
does one see civil society stepping in to coax one government arm to come to
the aid of another for a public project – that too in a novel manner that
catches the eye of everyone.
The United Federation of Resident Welfare
Associations (U-FERWAS) did just that when it went on a novel plantation drive
at neighbourhood Railway Stations to draw the Telangana Government’s attention
towards pending contributions for the MMTS Phase II works in Hyderabad.
Dubbed the "Green Challenge" for
MMTS Phase II works completion, the initiative was taken up at Malkajgiri and
other stations where members planted saplings to impress on Telangana Chief
Minister K Chandra Sekhara Rao and others in the government for the early
release of the pending contributions project.
In a
letter to the Chief Minister the U-FERWAS requested the state administration to
allocate pending funds from State Government totaling Rs. 440 Crore towards the
share of Telangana Government in the ensuing state budget, to ensure the
completion of the above projects.
“We shall
be grateful if your august office takes this up and makes these projects a
reality and reduce the miseries of the travelling denizens. This would
certainly contribute towards the betterment of the City and will be another
jewel like the Metro Rail, which all of us are proud of.”
A good number of Residents Welfare Associations
Devinagar RWA, Uttam Nagar RWA,
Gowthamnagar RWA, Mallikarjuna Nagar RWA, Dyanad Nagar RWA, Seetaram Nagar RWA,
Balaram Nagar RWA, Jyoti Nagar RWA, I N Nagar RWA, citizens of Malkajgiri area
& Lions club members attended this "Green Challenge".
“The initiative is in the same spirit of the Chief
Minister’s pet project the Haratha Haram,” Mr B T Srinivasan, General
Secretary, U-FERWAS said.
The 84-km
long MMTS Phase-II involving (Moulali-Ghatkesar, Moulali – Sanathnagar –
Tellapur – Ramachandrapuram, Medchal – Bolarum – Secunderabad and Falaknuma –
Umdanagar – Shamshabad Airport) has been in execution stage for a few years
now. When complete it is expected to ease the trouble of daily commuters to the
Hi-Tech City area by traversing the distance in just 45 minutes.
However,
the project, which is a joint project by the Indian Railways and the state
government, has been hanging fire for some time now for want of release of
funds by the latter.
Works
were started with an initial amount of Rs. 817 crore on a cost sharing basis
between Ministry of Railways and state government (one third by South Central
Railways and two-thirds by Telangana State Government). The State Government
has reportedly so far released Rs. 129 crore out of their total share Rs. 544
Crore and SCR spent Rs. 580 crore releasing Rs. 262 crore more than their share
of Rs. 272 crore.
The expectation was that this amount would be
released in the State Budget slated to be presented in the State Assembly on
Sunday, March 08, 2020.
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