Hectic activity on for GHMC expansion

The Centre for Good Governance has been the facilitator for hectic process of finalising the ward delimitation in view of the expansion of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, for which the government has issued an ordinance. The ordinance has received the Governor’s nod.

A large number of Town Planning officials and election staff from GHMC and surrounding municipalities, together with other high ranking officials, are huddled up in day-long meetings at the Marri Chenna Reddy Human Resources Development Institute of Telangana deliberating and redrawing the boundaries of the divisions in the context of the merger of 27 municipalities/corporations into the GHMC. The entire exercise, continuing for the past five to six days, has been kept strictly confidential.

The GHMC as of now, has 150 divisions, and the number may go up at least by a 100 if the delimitation exercise is completed. Sources have informed that, in order to facilitate the delimitation process, the number of eligible voters have been divided into clusters of 25,000 each in GHMC as well as the surrounding urban local bodies. Boundaries of the districts, and parliamentary and assembly constituencies will be the basis on which the clusters will be clubbed to form the new divisions.

The number of wards, or ward-wise population details have not yet been finalised, sources informed. With the GHMC densely populated and the surrounding municipalities relatively sparsely, there might be huge variations in the divisions in terms of size, population and number. Total population within the expanded GHMC is estimated to be around 1.3 crore, based on the 2011 Census.

The delimitation exercise is to be completed in a few days, in line with the Centre’s directive to freeze the administrative boundaries by December 31 to facilitate the population Census exercise to be conducted next year.

Two more ordinances related to the merger are likely to be sent for Governor’s approval, one for de-linking the ULBs from The Municipalities Act, 2019 – and another – giving official sanction to the boundaries of the Telangana Core Urban Region which defines the areas within and in proximity of the Outer Ring Road, highly placed sources informed.

The exercise for ward delimitation is likely to be completed within three days after the ordinances are out, after which a draft notification will be released, inviting objections and suggestions.