Hyderabad mayor only a figurehead

The Hyderabad mayor-elect, Teegala Krishna Reddy, of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), and a 100 corporators are waking up to the fact that the mayor is definitely a figurehead.

The mayor who fought a desperate battle to win the post will have far less powers than mayors in Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, New Delhi and Chennai, thanks to an obsolete Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) Act which, at the time of its making, perceived that the post of mayor meant nothing more than a rubber stamp.

The act gave the mayor powers to convene council meetings and made it compulsory for the mayor to be invited to all government functions held in Hyderabad. For the first time ever, voters directly elected the mayor.

However, all financial powers are vested either with the MCH or the standing committee chairman, who will be elected next week by corporators, a reality made worse for the TDP by the fact that the Majlis-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (MIM) and the Con-gress party enjoy a majority in the corporation and on Wednesday came to a "broad understanding" to share both the post of deputy mayor and standing committee chairman.

Life will also be difficult for the corporators, as the MCH commissioner - appointed by the state government - has powers to sanction funds ranging from Rs50,000 to Rs2 million without the consent of either the mayor or the standing committee chairman.

The standing committee has powers to sanction expenditure ranging from Rs2 million to Rs5 million, but for expenditure above Rs5 million, the state government's approval is necessary, making the mayor's post totally ceremonial.