Hyderabad: Villages on the edges of the city are set to be merged into GHMC to enable planned and systematic development of the outskirts and check irregularities committed by gram panchayats in giving out indiscriminately approvals to layouts and buildings. The government has asked collectors to tell gram panchayats to submit resolutions relating to the approval of the merger with GHMC. The tenure of gram panchayats will end in the first week of July next. The government therefore wants to obtain merger resolutions by January so that elections could be held for the remaining panchayats.
Villages within a five-km radius of municipal corporations and municipalities will also be merged to make local bodies bigger and stronger financially. Minister for municipal administration and urban development K.T. Rama Rao has sought proposals from all municipal corporations and municipalities on villages that could be merged.
Besides, the government is also trying to create new municipalities by merging surrounding villages in major towns. Mr Rama Rao said the government was planning to create about 40 new municipalities. Earlier, an attempt was made by the Kiran Kumar Reddy government in 2013 to merge 36 villages surrounding the city into the GHMC and had issued a GO for the purpose.
Some gram panchayats challenged this in the High Court, which suspended the GO on the ground that the government had not followed norms and consulted gram panchayats before taking the decision. To avoid such a problem to recur, the TS government has decided to obtain resolutions from gram panchayats in advance approving merger with GHMC and elsewhere in other municipal corporations and municipalities across the state.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao recently announced in the Assembly that the government would amend the Municipalities Act and Panchayat Raj Act to create more municipalities and gram panchayats and make local bodies efficient and accountable. The government plans to table a Panchayat Raj Amendment Bill by convening a special session of the Legislature. A decision on tabling the Muni-cipalities Amendment Bill is still to be taken.
