Hyderabad: Soon Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) would be divided into five corporations to facilitate citizens with better administration. The current six zones will be divided into five corporations based on geographical continuity and population. As per central norms, these corporati-ons would attain A1 recognition with a population of at least 20 lakh and they would also receive grants worth Rs 200 crore.
Corporation sources said that the existing zonal system did not yield desired results due to centralised funding and staff crunch. The five new corporations would not only strengthen the grievance readdressal system but would bring governance to the public. This could also strengthen current weak wings like health, and sanitation and revenue.
According to highly placed sources, each of the five corporations will have the geographical continuity which will not be less than 20 lakh population. For instance, areas including Serilingampally, Ramchandrapuram and Patancheruvu circles will be merged to form a single corporation which will have population of a 20 lakh. Similarly, circles including Alwal, Kapra and Uppal will be formed into another corporation.
The division exercise will be taken to expedite ongoing projects, strengthening systems including revenue, health, sanitation, engineering and town planning. These corporations would be eligible for A1 class and as a consequence will be allocated `200 crore towards Compensatory City Allo-wance (CCA) as recommended by the Sixth Central Pay Finance. Sources said the grants would not only be useful for the ongoing development works but also to recruit permanent staff to address public grievances efficiently.
However, a senior GHMC official, on condition of anonymity, said that rather than dividing the civic body into five corporations, it would be easy to provide budgetary power to the existing zonal commissioners who execute work at the field level. He said that the corporation should concentrate on grey areas like grievance readdressal, curbing illegal constructions, transparency in tax collection and attending sanitation-related issues at the earliest. He said that the headquarters have to be used for policy making and other innovative measures. The official further said that even though the exercise in making five different corporations was in the pipeline, it would create greater confusion among citizens pertaining to five different policies that would be implemented in these corporations.
The official pointed out that if common policies were chalked out prior to the formation of the new corporations, it would bri-ng governance closer to the public and speed development of the city.
