Residents welcome govt’s decision to upgrade Bhadrachalam as municipality
Kothagudem: The State Cabinet’s decision to upgrade historic Bhadrachalam major gram panchayat to a municipality, has been welcomed by residents of the temple town. People are hoping that the State government’s decision will pave the way for the town’s all-round development with flow of funds as well as elections to the local body. It may […]
Kothagudem: The State Cabinet’s decision to upgrade historic Bhadrachalam major gram panchayat to a municipality, has been welcomed by residents of the temple town.
People are hoping that the State government’s decision will pave the way for the town’s all-round development with flow of funds as well as elections to the local body. It may be noted the local body has not gone to polls for the past five years due to hurdles created by certain organisations.
“The government’s decision will herald a new era in terms of development of the temple town, which is known as ‘Dakshina Ayodhya. The town’s progress has been hampered as the local body remained without an elected body all these years” said the town based senior journalist Kona Anand Sharma.
Sharma told Telangana Today that in the middle of 2000’s the then government created ‘Sri Rama Divya Kshetram Township’, with a status of a Nagara Panchayat, aiming to improve infrastructure in the town.
But some local wine shop dealers, who feared that liquor license fees will increase with the change in the town’s status went to High Court, on the pretext that the town falls under the 5th Schedule of the Constitution and hence upgrading the town as urban local body will harm the tribal people’s interests.
Now people in the town are happy at the Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s timely decision, which is long awaited. The town with around 50, 000 of population is in urgent need of basic infrastructure development as past governments have neglected the town, Sharma averred.
The same is the opinion of an ITC contractor Pakala Durgaprasad and a businessman Rama Rao who felt that if Bhadrachalam is upgraded as a municipality better facilities can be provided to the residents. The town lagged behind in development due to the absence of an elected body, they said.
Bhadrachalam gram panchayat was constituted in 1962 later upgraded as major gram panchayat. The last election held to the local body was in 2013 and its term completed in 2018. Election was not held to the local body since then and it remained as a proposed municipality.
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