Telangana High Court refuses to stay GHMC reorganisation

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday refused to interfere with the state government’s move to reorganise the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).

A division bench of Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya and Justice Gadi Praveen Kumar dismissed the petitions challenging the delimitation of municipal wards with the merger of 27 urban local bodies with the GHMC.

The state government has already issued a notification to increase the number of GHMC wards from 150 to 300. Petitions have been filed in the High Court, challenging the notification.

The state government defended the move, saying ward delimitation was undertaken based on a report submitted by the Centre for Good Governance (CGG).

The petitioner’s counsel had argued that the government did not make the report of CGG public and did not give sufficient time to submit objections.

The government brought to the court’s notice that the information relating to delimitation was already uploaded on the GHMC website.

The court was also informed that 3,100 objections had been received and the same were being addressed.

Earlier, the single judge on December 17 directed the GHMC to publish details relating to all 300 GHMC wards.

The GHMC was directed to upload ward-wise population figures and authenticated geographical maps of all GHMC wards within 24 hours.

However, the GHMC filed a writ appeal challenging the single judge’s order. The division bench set aside the order and asked GHMC to publish population-wise details and maps only with respect to two wards, as the petitioners had challenged the delimitation of only two wards.

The merger of the surrounding 27 urban local bodies with the GHMC will make it the biggest municipal corporation in the country, both in terms of area and population.

The GHMC boundaries will expand from the present 650 square kilometres to 2,050 square kilometres, while the estimated population will go up from 1.12 crore to 1.34 crore.