The long-pending proposal to form Greater Vijayawada Municipal Corporation, which has been luring the people for the last two years, is unlikely to materialise in the near future.
It is now almost clear that the ensuing elections to the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) will be conducted as per the present boundaries.
There were expectations that the next elections to the VMC scheduled for the later half of 2010 will take place not with the present boundaries but after the merger of about 15 surrounding or nearby villages, following a proposal made in 2007 to dissolve the surrounding panchayats and bring them under the ambit of the VMC to form the ‘greater city' by 2010.
‘Remote chances'
The officials of the VMC say there are ‘very remote chances' of implementing this proposal in the near future because elections to the VMC general body are round the corner while the surrounding village panchayats have their term that will last for a few more months.
It would take not less than a year for preparations to hold elections to a municipal corporation with redrawn boundaries even if the Government makes up its mind immediately.
The State Election Commission would have to complete certain tasks like altering the boundaries of divisions and preparing the voters' list, the sources point out.
For political reasons too, the ruling Congress is not in a mood to dissolve the panchayats and merge them with the VMC as the TDP has a stronghold in a majority of these panchayats.
The VMC did initiate the preparations to form greater city some time ago by drawing a map of the VMC after including the 15 village panchayats surrounding the city. It was estimated that the merger would extend the city area from the present 61.88 sq. km. to 189.37 sq. km.
The villages that were proposed to be merged are Nidamanuru, Donetikur, Enikepadu, Prasadampadu, Ramavarappadu, Pathapadu, Phiryadi Nainavaram, Ambapuram, Jakkampudi, Gollapudi, part of Nunna (all in Vijayawada rural mandal), Kanuru, Yanamalakuduru, Tadigadapa and Poranki (all in Penamaluru mandal).
The proposal received a fillip in November 2009 when the public representatives urged Chief Minster K. Rosaiah to take a decision on the file pending with the State government.
