Govt issues Ordinance to merge 51 villages around ORR with nearest municipalities

Hyderabad: The State Government has merged 51 villages in the limits of ORR (Outer Ring Road) under the purview of Medchal-Malkajgiri, Rangareddy and Sangareddy districts with nearby municipal bodies. The government promulgated an ordinance to this effect. From now onwards, the entire area of ORR will be considered as an urban area.

The officials said that the government took the decision to bring entire ORR area into an Urban Region on the advice of the experts. The government has been working for a long time to take decision to merge the villages around the ORR with the neighboring municipalities.

The Admistrative Staff College of India has been entrusted the responsibility of conducting a study on the merger of villages with Urban Local Bodies. The ASCI experts visited the villages in Medchal, Rangareddy and Sangareddy districts in ORR surroundings and studied the lifestyles and local governance. The government also formed a committee with the district officials after suggesting the need for an urban governance pattern in those villages.

The Cabinet Sub-committee led by Ministers D Sridhar Babu, Ponnam Prabhakar, Seethakka and Damodar Rajanarsimha also made recommendations on the merger of villages. The government has decided to merge all 51 villages into the nearby municipalities. With the merger of villages, the number of wards have been increased in 13 municipalities.