Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) headquarters near Tank Bund, Hyderabad. File
| Photo Credit: RAMAKRISHNA G
The State government is seriously considering major reorganisation of the city’s municipal limits through integration of all the urban local bodies within the limits of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA).
It is reliably learnt that the Municipal Administration & Urban Development department has received instructions from Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy to explore the possibility of merging all the municipal corporations and municipalities within the HMDA towards formation of one greater city corporation.
The officials were asked to study the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi, through merger of three surrounding municipal corporations, before coming up with the reorganisation plan.
Alternatively, the area under HMDA may be reconstituted, into four municipal corporations, on the East, West, North and South directions respectively, in order to decentralise the development.
If the merger comes about as envisioned, the area under the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s purview may at once take one giant leap of over 10 times, with inclusion of seven municipal corporations and 30 municipalities.
Special officers may be appointed to each corporation or municipality after completion of the present council’s term till the last of such councils completes its term, after which the merger process may be initiated.
Inequitable distribution of funds is said to be the major rationale behind the unification of the urban areas on city’s peripheries. While a few divisions in some corporations have more than a lakh population, a few more have only 30,000, and uniform distribution of funds and grants is resulting in unfair deal to some areas, it is felt.
The underdeveloped fringes of the city need more fund infusion for growth of infrastructure, while the developed divisions in the core city can do with lower allocations. Merger of all corporations into one, coupled with a fresh delimitation of municipal divisions based on population, is anticipated to help uniform development of the city.
