COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Greater Hyderabad constituted

Shireen in Hyderabad

The constitution of Greater Hyderabad by merging the adjoining nine municipalities and a gram panchayat with the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad has finally taken shape with the Andhra Pradesh government issuing a notification to this effect.

With an area of 607 square kilometres and a population currently estimated at more than six million, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Hyderabad is expected to be the largest civic body in southern India.

The MCGH comprises the areas of erstwhile MCH and adjoining nine municipalities -- Rajendranagar, L B Nagar, Uppal Kalan, Kapra, Malkajgiri, Alwal, Qutubullahpur, Kukatpally and Seri Lingampally besides Gaddiannaram panchayat.

The proposal was first mooted by then chief minister Nedurumalli Janardhan Reddy in March 1991 but it could not take off due to procedural delays and differences of opinion among the political parties.

It was last year that the draft notification was issued, inviting suggestions and objections from the people and political parties.

Polls to the erstwhile MCH and the nine municipalities had been deferred for several years as the successive state governments insisted that the elections could be held only after the creation of Greater Hyderabad. The MCH polls were last held in 1986 and the Majlis-e-Ittehaadul Muslimeen held power in the civic body for a five-year term.

The elections in the adjoining municipalities were conducted in 1987-88.

Hyderabad Municipal Commissioner P K Mohanty held a preliminary meeting with the commissioners of the municipalities and the executive officer of Gaddiannaram gram panchayat on Friday on the reorganisation of staff and other related matters.

The erstwhile municipalities, which hitherto enjoyed various grades, will henceforth function under the direct supervision of the Municipal Commissioner of Hyderabad. Each municipal town will be treated as a 'Greater Hyderabad Municipal circle'.

The present municipal commissioners of these municipalities, depending on their seniority, will be posted in various circles as deputy municipal commissioners.

The municipal towns will be merged with their nearest zones of the erstwhile MCH (east, west, south and Secunderabad).

Tell us what you think of this report