Telangana Collectors to get superpowers

Hyderabad: Now, District Collectors will be the supreme authorities in place of Municipal Commissioners in all municipalities in Telangana.

The Collectors have been given 'superpowers' under the new Municipal Act which includes suspending municipal chairpersons and members and also cancelling resolutions, orders and permissions sanctioned by the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) with a stroke of pen.

This is the sum and substance of the new Municipal Bill that has been introduced in the Assembly by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Thursday. The Bill would be discussed and passed on Friday.

Under the new Municipal Act, the district collector can suspend any chairperson or vice-chairperson or member for six months if they were found to have wilfully misbehaved or manhandles any other member or employees of municipality or destroys the property of the municipality.

District collectors have been empowered to cancel, modify the adopted resolutions, orders and licences issued by the municipalities. The government can either rescind the collectors order or ratify the same after giving reasonable opportunity of explanation.

The district collector would be heading the layout approval committee and can also form flying squads in the municipalities. The Town Planning wing of the municipalities would also come under the district collector.

The collector can inspect any immovable property or any work-in- progress under the control of any municipal authority in his district. The collector can seek any report and the chairpersons, or the commissioners should furnish the same without unreasonable delay.

The collectors can direct the municipal commissioner for execution of any work and order directing the commissioner having custody of the municipal fund, to pay them in priority to any other work.

They can call records and ask the officials to furnish any return, plan, estimate, statement of account or statistics.

The government would establish Institute of Urban Excellence as an autonomous institution of excellence specialising to take up training for elected representatives and municipal employees on regular basis.

The government would also appoint officers to supervise municipalities. The officers would be inspecting or superintending the operations of the municipalities.