Nizamabad: After the successful completion of the gram panchayat elections, now the focus has shifted to municipal elections in Telangana state.
The 132 municipalities including the newly-carved out municipalities are readying to conduct elections soon. In view of the rapid urbanisation, the state government is also keen on elections to the municipalities.
But it is learnt that a few ruling TRS party leaders especially MPs urged Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao not to go for municipal polls before the Parliament elections.
As a result, the process of municipal elections is not yet begun in the state. However, it is believed that the state government may take the initiative for elections in municipalities at the earliest. If the High Court gives the nod for the merger of villages into the municipalities, the officials are ready to conduct the polls.
The existing municipal councils will complete their term on July 2, 2019. According to reliable sources, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is aiming to complete all elections including urban and rural local bodies prior to Parliament elections in May. As part of this, gram panchayat elections in three phases were completed successfully on Wednesday.
In view of migration of people from villages to towns, the population in municipal corporations and municipal towns in the state is growing fast. Providing basic amenities to the urban people is the need of the hour. In this context, Mr K.Taraka Rama Rao as municipal administration and urban development minister had taken the initiative to upgrade major gram panchayats into municipalities.
Fora instance, in composite Nizamabad district, the TRS government upgraded Banswada, Yellareddy and Bheemgal towns as municipalities. Earlier, Nizamabad municipal corporation, Bodhan, Kamareddy and Armoor towns continued as municipalities. Around 23 per cent of the population has been living in urban areas in the old district.
The surrounding villages of a majority of municipalities in the state have merged into urban local bodies. Interestingly, municipal officials carried out a Backward Classes (BC) voters’ survey in municipal towns along with merged villages for early polls. Challenging the merger of suburban areas into municipalities, a few villagers approached the High Court and the case is in pending.
Speaking to DC, a senior officer from the municipal administration said that they had not yet received any guidelines about the polls. “We will take up division of municipal wards in merged villages into municipalities,” he explained.
He added there was a chance of municipal and mandal/zilla parishad elections soon.
