Hyderabad: City-based researcher Srinivas Kodali on Friday, December 12, wrote to Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) commissioner RV Karnan seeking a map and defined boundaries of its new area. Last month the state government had approved the merger of 27 municipalities into the civic body, expanding its territory.
Kodali also objected to the way the GHMC was expanded without any defined boundaries, stating that it goes against the principles of map making. “As per the notification, the GHMC area, including the recently merged 27 ULBs, has been re-organised into 300 Election Wards under rule 8 of the Telangana Municipal Corporations (Delimitation of Wards) Rules 1996. It would take at least a month for anyone to look at 300 ward boundaries even when a map of any kind with real defined boundaries is shared,” he said in his letter to the GHMC.
After the state government announced its decision and passed the order for GHMC’s expansion, it gave a seven day period for anyone to bring forth objections and to give suggestions. Kodali also said that at least a month is needed for anyone to look at the new map.
“The boundaries have been announced in no regular format, neither are the revenue survey numbers mentioned nor is there a list of latitudes or longitudes of the boundary clearly defined,” he said in his objection to the GHMC commissioner.
As of new the GHMC area has 150 wards. A delimitation exercise had also been carried out earlier to redistribute the population in the GHMC area to make seats even in terms of voter before the 2015 civic body elections. With the expansion, the Greater Hyderabad area will go up from about 650 square kilometers to over 2000 sq kms, nearly triple in size.
Many see this as a move by the ruling Congress to win the next GHMC elections as it currently is very weak in the Hyderabad and surrounding areas. Though it won the 2023 state elections with 64 out of 119 Assembly seats, it could not even win one seat in the GHMC area. Post 2023 however, it won the Secunderabad Cantonment and Jubilee Hills (in November) in by-elections.
