Telangana govt to face headwinds in merger of ULBs with GHMC

Hyderabad: There are several challenges before the government for the merger of the Gram Panchayats and Municipalities into GHMC given the size of the new proposal, even as it would take at least one year for the ULBs falling under the Outer Ring Road (ORR) for merging with the GHMC.

The first thing should be to have resolutions from the Gram Panchayats to nearby local bodies. There are 33 Gram Panchayats falling within the outer ring road, mostly in Rangareddy, Medchal and a few in Medak district.

According to officials, the term of most of the Gram Panchayats is over, the government will have to merge these with the adjacent urban local bodies. In case of non-availability of the ULB, the government will have to create a cluster of the Panchayats to be recognised as the ULBs. Already the Panchayat Raj and Rural Development departments have been asked to denotify. There are 33 Gram Panchayats, 20 Municipalities and eight Municipal Corporations including the GHMC, which has 150 divisions. The other corporations are Badangpet, Bandlaguda Jagir, Meerpet-Jillelaguda, Boduppal, Peerzadiguda, Jawaharnagar, Nizampet. Another big challenge would be the rise in the population of the civic body.

The population of GHMC with the inclusion of areas falling within the ORR would be around 1.3 crore. Officials said that the big population would be a challenge for taking up development programmes and delivery systems. Already, GHMC has 150 divisions and adding to the burden on the Corporation. There will be resistance from the people in the Gram Panchayats as the tax burden is likely to increase on them. There were protests in some of the villages and also municipalities against the merger plans of the government. The Gram Panchayats get funds from the Centre under various schemes. Sources said that once these pass the resolutions for merger, they will be deprived of funds. Similar is the case with the urban local bodies adjacent to the GHMC. The tenure of most of the ULBs (including Municipalities and Corporations) is coming to end by February 2025. Similarly, the term of GHMC will be ending in January 2026.