Objections of all hues on various aspects of ward delimitation, from process to purpose, from mode of exercise to outcome, were raised at the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) council meeting on Tuesday.
A total of 152 corporators and ex-officio members attended the meeting presided over by Mayor Gadwal Vijayalakshmi.
A newly released map of the 300 proposed precincts in the now expanded society resembled a hibiscus flower, clustered in the center and spreading to the edges. The rationale given by officials that the population was dense in the core and sparse towards the newly merged urban local bodies did not seem to have many takers.
Objections were raised as to how Turkayamjal with a population of 70,000 could be made a single ward while Jalpally is divided into three, about Fairgrounds with a population of 12,000 as a ward carved out of Goshamahal and Narsingi which has more divisions than Manikonda despite having fewer electorates while Shamshabad has three wards while Amshabad has three wards only two wards and Borabanda was held as single department. There were allegations of suggesting a tacit understanding between the ruling party and the MIM, while MIM members said the purpose of the exercise was to damage the MIM.
A few anomalies raised by members related to name changes. Kallem Navajeevan Reddy representing Hayatnagar pointed out that the Hayat Bakshi Begum Mosque, after which the area was named, went to the High Court Colony division and also the Hayatnagar warehouse. Several corporators have questioned the renaming of Baghlingampally ward after DD Colony. Corporator Mohammed Rashed Farazuddin raised the issue of converting Shaikpet village into OU Colony ward.
Vanga corporator Madhusudan Reddy pointed out that delimitation was done in 2009 after infusing each of the merged ULBs with funds of ₹400-500 crore and urged the government to follow suit. V.Sravan Kumar representing Malkajgiri division said that the boundaries mentioned in the gazette notification were unknown to most.
MLC Dasoju Sravan Kumar called the delimitation exercise “undemocratic and unconstitutional”. He questioned the constitutional sanctity of the Center for Good Governance which conducted the exercise and asked why the CGG report was not submitted.
MLA Ahmed bin Abdullah Balala appreciated the fact that members’ views on delimitation were being sought for the first time and cited the absence of data as the basis for the exercise.
Former minister and current MLA Talasani Srinivas Yadav claimed that the number of voters in the ward varies widely, ranging between 18,000 and 70,000. The government conducted the exercise in a non-transparent manner without consulting stakeholders, he said.
Another MLA Ch. Malla Reddy shouted foul on the 220 wards in the erstwhile Medchal constituency, which was reduced to 16 after the merger. Comparing the scale of the GHMC with metro cities like Mumbai and global cities like Tokyo, MLA KP Vivekanand recalled that Mumbai has a total of nine municipal corporations and nagar panchayats, while Tokyo has 23 corporations.
MLA Kaleru Venkatesh pointed out that already several offices like District Collector, Irrigation Department and HYDRAA were not under the purview of GHMC Commissioner and citizens are forced to run from pillar to post for permission. He sought to know how infrastructure, planning and manpower would be handled in the expanded GHMC.
Legislator Sabitha Indra Reddy said the peripheral ULBs, which had a collective 858 wards, have now been reduced to just 58, which she said would cause problems to citizens.
Published – 16 Dec 2025 21:00 IST
