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In the past ten days, civic activists, opposition parties and corporators have raised strong objections to the division of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) into 300 new wards from the existing 150 wards.
On December 9, the Telangana government issued a gazetted notification announcing the delimitation of GHMC wards. The notification also mentioned that areas under the GHMC area, which now includes stretches up to the Outer Ring Road (ORR), have been organised into 300 election wards.
Earlier, on November 27, urban local bodies (ULBs) around ORR were added to the GHMC limits. Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy said at the time that the 27 ULBs were added to “ensure uniformity of administration, taxes, civic amenities and other facilities.”
Lack of transparency, arbitrary division
Leaders from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the AIMIM have criticised the exercise, while Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) and civic activists have raised several concerns.
TNM spoke to some of them after the GHMC’s special meeting on December 16.
United Federation of Resident Welfare Associations general secretary BT Srinivas referenced GHMC Commissioner RV Karnan’s speech from December 16.
“The commissioner said that from 1.12 crore, the population has now increased to 1.34 crore because of the new ULBs. For a mere additional population of 22 lakhs, why should the entire GHMC be divided into 300 wards? It defies logic,” he said.
Srinivas also stressed that delimitation could weaken the RWAs’ assistance.
“RWAs have acted as a bridge between the GHMC and the public for civic issues. That’s gone now. Further, areas have been divided and merged oddly. For instance, one part of Alwal has been merged with Kukatpally, which is 12 kilometres away — so accessing the police station or corporator becomes difficult,” he further said.
Civic and digital activist Srinivas Kodali told TNM that the entire exercise lacked transparency and did not take public interest into account.
“The GHMC has not clarified if delimitation is being done based on voters or population. Taking voters alone into account would mean putting Hyderabadi residents who don’t vote here at a disadvantage. Certain wards may get lesser infrastructure, water facilities and lesser revenue overall,” he said.
While the GHMC did allow for claims and objections till December 17, Srinivas pointed out that the municipal corporation should have publicised details of house numbers, road numbers, square kilometres and other geographical factors beforehand.
Major Shiva Kiran, who has worked as a consultant with the GHMC in the past, said that wards work as the primary unit of governance.
“It is odd that the exercise is being carried out by the GHMC without any involvement of the police, sanitation staff, or officials from the water department. The GHMC commissioner said during the special meeting that some wards have been divided because they are likely to have more population. This assumption also needs some critical enquiry. There is too much of a rush,” he said.
Shiva Kiran, also a Geographic Information Expert (GIS), pointed to the delimitation list issued by the GHMC.
“The list refers to parts of the city as ‘east’, ‘west’, ‘north’ and ‘south’. We are unable to identify which ward falls under which police station or which corporator deals with a particular area — this throws a wrench in the self-governance system. The GHMC is also using survey numbers on village maps to carry out delimitation for the 27 ULBs. This too makes little sense,” Shiva said.
A majority of the complaints pertain to name changes, as wards which previously came under certain well-known areas are now subsumed under others.
Wards in Bhaglingampally have been subsumed under DD Colony, while wards under East and West Marredpally have been subsumed under Monda Market. With several such changes, the GHMC has been flooded with claims and objections.
Addressing these concerns, the GHMC Commissioner said on December 16 that the municipal corporation has now set up a committee.
“Officials from city/corporation town planning, assembly constituency election officials, and I will personally look into the issue and ensure that the objections are disposed of accordingly,” he said.
The assurance has done little to assuage RWAs and activists.
“There is still scepticism,” BT Srinivas said. Shiva added that the planning lacked political foresight and needed more enquiry.
Why is delimitation being done?
GHMC officials have said that the delimitation exercise is being carried out because the population is dense at the core and sparse towards the newly merged urban local bodies.
GHMC also said that the Centre for Good Governance (CGG), an allied government body, has been roped in to survey and study the merging of 27 ULBs with the GHMC.
Addressing concerns that the delimitation is happening at a rapid pace Karan said at the December 16 special meeting, “The last census happened in 2011. It didn’t happen in 2021 again due to the COVID-19 pandemic so the next census will take place in 2026. The urgency for this process is because we have to wrap up everything before December 31 of this year so that the census process can happen smoothly. December 31 was the deadline set by the Indian government.”
The commissioner also addressed concerns that the delimitation of wards was being done unscientifically.
“Dividing wards along the lines of natural boundaries was our first priority. Wherever a drain, major road, landmark, lake or railway line is present, we have retained it in the old ward,” he said.
He also added that the GHMC relied on the survey numbers of old village records only in the absence of natural boundaries.
“As far as possible, we have ensured that no ward is shifted out of its existing Assembly constituency except in certain areas, such as in the newly merged ULBs where we had to make an exception,” he added.