New Municipal Act to usher in speedy development: CM

Hyderabad: Now, Telangana will have a unique Municipal Act which promotes the State as one of the fast-growing urbanised States in the country. With an objective to promote every municipality a distinct local body in the area of development, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who also holds the Municipal Administration and Urban Development portfolio, prepared the Act before going for municipal elections in August.

The State Cabinet has approved the much-hyped draft "Telangana State Municipal Bill" to be adopted in the two-day Assembly session beginning from Thursday and also ratified Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's decision to reduce the age limit to avail the State sponsored pension schemes to 57 from the present 65 years.

KCR on Wednesday held four-hour long Cabinet meeting at Pragati Bhavan and discussed in detail the draft Municipal Bill which aimed to bring radical reforms in the administration of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and municipal corporations. Under the Act, the government proposed an exclusive urban policy for the comprehensive development of the municipalities and special powers to the urban development authorities to ensure environment-friendly development. Sources said that the existing rules in the GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation) will also be altered under the new municipal Act.

The Cabinet decided to disburse the enhanced pension amount to the beneficiaries, including old-aged, single women, poor weavers, beedi workers, physically challenged and AIDS patients from June this year. Before depositing the pension amount in the bank account of the beneficiaries, ministers, MLAs, MLCs and Zilla Parishad Chairpersons will hold meeting and distribute the proceedings to the beneficiaries. The cabinet also ratified the extension of pension scheme to all beedi workers.