The Hindu 27.09.2009
Banswada waits for municipal status
Staff Reporter
NIZAMABAD: The Banswada town, inhabited by over 30,000 people qualifies to become the municipal council taking the total number of municipal towns in the district to five as the town has met all the parameters set by the government to convert a gram panchayat into the municipality.
Population
The town, the number one among the major gram panchayats in the district, crossed the population of 25,000 which is the primary qualification to become the municipality as announced by the government recently. In addition to that, if the four villages --Rajaram Dubba, Someswar, Tadkole and Koyagutta -- falling within the radius of three kilometres of the Banswada merged with the town, its population will easily touch 40,000.
As per the 2001 census the town had 25,000 population and the recent voter list suggested that the number of voters crossed 19,000. If four neighbouring villages are merged into the town it will easily qualify to become the municipality, says Sarpanch Prema Sivakumar. “People have no objection to make it the municipality. Yet, the proposals have not come so far”, she says.
Pocharam’s take
However, the local MLA and former Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy (TDP) says, as on today there is no demand from the people to convert the Banswada panchayat into the municipality. If a local body is converted into the municipality it would have both advantages and disadvantages. The municipality gets more loans and less grants, while a panchayat gets more grants and less loans, he explains.
“If the people demand that it should be made the municipality that can be a different case. But, on my own I cannot represent nor propose for the municipality”, he told The Hindu.
