More than a dozen villages of Ranga Reddy and Medak districts are likely to get entwined to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) before it begins to reorganise its 18 circles into 30 circles.
The government is slated to take a decision on different gram panchayats joining the premier civic body in the next few days once it manages to strike a balance between the political interests and the administrative convenience.
GHMC has evinced interest in ‘taking over’ 21 gram panchayats, down from the 34-odd a year ago. Criteria were villages should be contiguous with the municipal corporation’s geography and “witnessing rapid urbanisation”, as Additional Commissioner (Planning) K. Dhananjaya Reddy, put it.
Basic amenities
The objective is to regulate the development activity and provide basic amenities as the gram panchayats have neither the expertise nor infrastructure to tackle them. Actually, eight villages were supposed to be merged along with the 12 municipalities when GHMC was being formed.
These were: Shamshabad, Satamrai, Jalpalli, Mamidipalli, Mankhla, Almasguda, Sardarnagar and Raviryal. But, an official notification was withdrawn as they had elected bodies.
Later, the list was expanded to 20 by including Peeranchervu, Hydershakotla, Bandlaguda, Manikonda, Poppalguda, Narsingi, Kokapet, Nizampet, Bachupally, Kompally, Boduppal and Balapur.
The Ranga Reddy Collectorate wanted 52 villages into GHMC like Meerpet, Medchal, Badangpet, Peerzadiguda, Gundla Pochampally, Ootupally, Tondupally, Jillelaguda, Nadergul, Pahadisharief, Sardarnagar, Peeramchervu, Doolapally, Bahadurpally, etc.
Over the last few months, some of these villages were thought fit to be grouped to form ‘nagar panchayats’. As things stand now, 15 villages of R.R. and seven villages of Medak are on the table for inclusion.
These are: Shamshabad, Satamrai, Kothwalguda, Ootupally, Tondupally, Manikonda, Bachupally, Pragatinagar, Jawaharnagar, Poppalguda,Neknampur, Poppalguda, Kokapet, Gandipet, Nizampet, Kothwalguda.
Ameenpur, Bandlaguda, Tellapur, Velimela, Edunagalapalli and Osmananagar of Medak are also among those shortlisted to be part of the city.
Interestingly, the villages identified for inclusion into GHMC or two to three villages to be grouped to form ‘nagar panchayats’ were done on the basis of the 2001 population census. But, if the 2011 census (yet to be officially notified) is considered, many of these villages can straightaway be notified into grade one municipalities considering the surge in population levels over the past decade, point out senior officials.
