Eye on Greater Hyderabad

Hyderabad:How to turn the tables on the Opposition and how to gain supremacy in the Greater Hyderabad limits is the major concern for the ruling Congress now.

The previous BRS government had created 20 municipalities and 8 Municipal Corporations by restructuring the GHMC and merged Gram Panchayats in 2018 before holding the local body elections. This helped the pink party sweep the local body elections in all new municipalities and it also helped the party win a majority of the Assembly seats in the 2023 elections. With the GHMC polls likely to be held next year, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy wants to take some quick administrative decisions which can prove to be a major challenge for the pink party. The mission before the Congress now is to get an absolute majority in the GHMC polls.

The government is mulling two proposals. One, to create a Mega City inside the ORR by merging all the existing urban local bodies with the GHMC. The second one is to have three corporations - GHMC, Cyberabad and Rachakonda. The CM is not in a mood to hold the urban local body elections in the GHMC and ORR limits until the existing municipal bodies were restructured geographically. Officials said the Chief Minister had asked the Municipal Administration department to conduct a study on the feasibility of both the proposals.

The existing GHMC is spread over 650 square km and the proposed mega city will have a geographical area of 8,000 square km which could be the biggest city after Mumbai in the country.

Officials said that the tenure of the existing Municipal Corporations - Nizampet, Boduppal, Meerpet, Jillelguda, Bandlaguda Jagir, Badangpet, Peerzadiguda and Jawaharnagar and 30 municipalities located on the city outskirts will end in January 2025 and the GHMC elected body will complete the five-year term in December 2025. The CM is keen to take a final decision by the end of the year.

If these municipalities are merged or included in the proposed three corporations, the election will be held only in December next year. Till then, the special officers will oversee the functioning of the urban bodies.