Merger, demerger, expansion and the birth of the humongous municipality of Hyderabad

On Christmas Day, the announcement of the birth of a humongous Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) was made by the Commissioner of the civic body, marking a fresh beginning of 12 zones, 60 circles, and 300 ward civic body.

From a 55 square km civic body at its inception in 1869 to a 2,053 sq. km in 2025, Hyderabad has come a long way. In 1869, the city was divided into four divisions within the walled area and the suburbs outside the wall and across the Musi River into five divisions functioning under a municipal Superintendent administered by a miscellaneous minister.

It has been a tumultuous ride for the civic body that has gained notoriety among its citizens for corruption with ‘Baldia, khaya, piya chaldiya’. Baldia being the old name for the municipal body known as andrun baldia (within the city) and the suburbs as bairoon baldia functioning under a Municipal Superintendent.

It has been a story of merger and demerger for the city that evolved from a walled compound in 1712 with its centrepiece of Charminar built in 1591. Within a few years of formation of suburban divisions, they were merged to create the Chaderghat Municipality in 1881. But while these municipal offices were functioning, they had limited powers. The reforms under the Local Self-Government Acts of 1882 ushered in by Lord Ripon bypassed Hyderabad and the Nizam’s Dominion.

The Hyderabad Municipality and the Chadarghat municipalities were amalgamated into a single body under one Secretary in 1903. “The Chaderghat area had emerged as a kind of imperial financial area with the banks and a number of family financial firms. It would be what today is the financial district in Cyberabad,” says a city based historian.

However, the income of the municipal corporation was limited with taxes on property being the main source as it is today. The taxes included gharpatti (House tax), roshnipatti (Light tax), and barbardaripatti (Toll tax), and one of the minor sources is sawaripauti (Vehicle tax).

Lord Ripon’s reforms that ushered in representatives local government in 1882 in urban areas under British rule were implemented only in 1933 with the corporation gaining statutory status. December 1934 saw elections for the first time for the Hyderabad civic body but with a caveat. The city was divided into 13 wards where the elections took place. The rest of the 23 councillors were nominated. The government nominated 13 members, including a Parsi, a Christian and a ‘Harijan’ member chosen by the community. The other 10 councillors were nominated by the Nizam: the three Paigahs, jagirdars, graduates and the mercantile class all for a term of three years.

But it was too little too late. The reforms meant nothing as the power of planning the city had shifted to the City Improvement Board after the 1908 flood and 1911 plague epidemic. In 1937, the Jubilee Hills Municipality was formed by merging Jubilee Hills and Banjara Hills areas. In 1942, the Chaderghat Municipality’s administrative control was returned to the Nizam’s government leading to the birth of Secunderabad Municipality in 1945.

Post Independence, the Hyderabad Municipal Corporations Act of 1950 saw the birth of Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad after its merger with Jubilee Hills Municipality. This expansion and contraction has continued ever since. The last merger before 2025 was when the MCH was merged with 12 municipalities and eight gram panchayats in April 2007 to create the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation that had five zones (south, east, north, west and central zones), 17 circles and 150 wards. Now, there are 300 wards while most of the ward names have survived the new rezoning, others have disappeared. The ones that didn’t make it are Moghalpura, Uppuguda, Jeedimetla and Kurmaguda. Jeedimetla is now Circle no. 55.