BRS slams move to merge 27 municipalities with GHMC, calls it ‘politically motivated’

BRS leader K.P. Vivekananda criticised the State Cabinet’s decision to merge 27 municipalities and gram panchayats with GHMC, calling it politically driven and unscientific. He alleged the move would burden residents, centralise power, and benefit real-estate interests without public consultation or stakeholder input.

Hyderabad: Dubbing the cabinet decision to merge 27 surrounding municipalities and gram panchayats into the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) as a ‘politically motivated move”, BRS leader K.P. Vivekananda said on Wednesday that the merger proposal was unscientific, undemocratic and irresponsible.Addressing a news conference at Telangana Bhavan, he said the merger decision was taken purely for political gains ahead of future elections and to benefit real-estate investors, without any scientific study or consultation. No all-party meeting was convened, nor were the opinions of local MLAs, MPs or the public sought before taking such a major decision.

Immediately after the merger, property taxes, registration charges and other fees will be hiked in the newly added areas, burdening residents. The cabinet decision is anti-democratic and against the spirit of decentralisation that former Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao had implemented. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy is allegedly trying to centralise all power in Hyderabad and gradually merge entire Telangana into the capital city.With the city’s expansion, local issues of residents in far-flung areas will no longer be able to reach the Mayor or Commissioner easily, leading to neglect of peripheral regions.

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Vivekanand reminded that a similar merger attempt was made by the Congress government in 2007, which BRS strongly opposed. He accused Revanth Reddy of working only for real-estate lobbyists and ‘carrying bags to Delhi’ instead of addressing people’s real problems.