In
what is seen as the first step towards holding the much-delayed
elections to the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation, the State
government has issued a GO fixing the number of wards at 81.

GO issued

The
GO issued on Wednesday by the Municipal Administration and Urban
Development Department takes the population of GVMC according to 2011
census and those of Anakapalle, Bheemunipatnam and five gram panchayats
merged in GVMC together for fixing the wards at 81. GVMC presently
comprises 72 wards.

As per 2011 census, the population of GVMC is
17,30,320, Anakapalle 86,612, Bheemunipatnam 54,865 and five gram
panchayats 9,889 taking the total to 18,81,686.

Based on a
proposal submitted by the Commissioner, GVMC, the GO fixes 63 wards for
the first 10,00,000 population and 18 for the remaining at the rate of
50,000 for each ward.

“With the GO issued, wards have to be formed by considering the natural and geographical boundaries,” said sources in GVMC.

“Further
instructions will come from the Director (Municipal Administration)
based on which we will go ahead,” Municipal Commissioner M Hari
Narayanan said.

However, the fixing of boundaries by following the
due process after the government issues orders will take a few months.
After that reservation of wards has to be done. All this will take a few
months of time, says former MLA Tyanala Vijaya Kumar who was a
corporator before being elected to the Assembly.

Elections were last held in 2007 after forming GVMC merging the outskirts and taking the number of wards from 50 to 72.

In July 2013, the government issued orders merging Anakapalle, Bheemunipatnam and the 10 gram panchayats in GVMC.

Cases
filed in High Court opposing the merger of Bheemunipatnam are still
pending. However, elections were held to the five panchayats in Bheemili
mandal following a court order.