Revanth’s Mega GHMC Sets Rolling With Merger of 51 Gram Panchayats

Hyderabad:The government on Tuesday issued an ordinance to expand the limits of Hyderabad’s urban agglomeration to the confines of Outer Ring Road (ORR) by merging 51 outlying gram panchayats with nearby municipal bodies in Rangareddy, Medchal-Malkajgiri and Sangareddy districts.

The ordinance that amends the Telangana Municipalities Act 2019 was aimed at creating a suitable administration structure for the entire region within the ORR, an official said.

Two gram panchayats — Pudur and Railpur — will be merged with the Medchal municipality, and six— Keesara, Yadgarpally, Ankireddypally, Cheeryal, Narsampally and Thimmaipally — with the Dammaiguda municipality.

The Tellapur municipality will include five gram panchayats of Kardanoor, Muthangi, Pocharam, Paati and Ghanapur. Another set of six gram panchayats in Ilapur, Ilapur Thanda, Patelguda, Dayara, Kistareddypet and Sulthanpur will be merged into Ameenpur municipality.

The ordinance was issued based on the recommendations of a Cabinet subcommittee, which included IT minister D. Sridhar Babu, transport minister Ponnam Prabhakar, panchayat raj minister Danasari Anasuya Seethakka, and health minister C. Damodar Rajanarsimha.

The merger followed a study by the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) and district officers committee which suggested a merger of 45 gram panchayats. Six more gram panchayats were included in the merger list later on.

The merger of gram panchayats is said to be a precursor to Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s plans to expand the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) by merging seven adjoining municipal corporations and 30 municipalities to create a post-merger entity called Hyderabad Greater City Corporation (HGCC).

The tenure of the existing municipalities will end in January 2025 and the GHMC elections are due for December 2025.

In view of the government’s mega city plans, elections for the seven adjoining municipal corporations and 30 municipalities will not be held along with local bodies elections this year to facilitate the merger. The government, therefore, proposed to appoint special officers for these seven corporations and 30 municipalities after their tenure ends in January 2025.