Hyderabad: Ahead of the Center’s December 31 deadline for fixing boundaries for the Census, the government is expediting the merging of 27 nearby urban local bodies (ULBs) into the GHMC. According to sources, administrative limitations cannot be changed after the deadline in accordance with central government regulations. According to official sources, the government is drafting an ordinance to change the Telangana Municipalities Act and the GHMC Act in order to make the merger lawful. It is anticipated that the plan would be presented prior to the upcoming Cabinet meeting in early December. On November 25, the Cabinet, led by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, approved the merger of GHMC and 27 ULBs.
According to the sources, the state administration has given the Center for Good Governance (CGG) the responsibility of carrying out a thorough investigation in order to guarantee that the merger is carried out in an organized and scientific manner. The CGG will advise recommendations for the devolution of powers within the reorganized civic structure, as well as new boundaries for the expanded GHMC and the number of divisions, circles, and zones to be established.
In order to coordinate administrative preparations with the merger timeframe, the government is requesting an early submission of the CGG report. GHMC will have 57 circles overall after the merger, up from the present 30. The increased 57-circle structure will be used by the municipal body until the government decides whether to reorganize GHMC into three, four, or five divisions. After the corporation’s present five-year term expires on February 10, 2026, the new administrative structure for the expanded GHMC is anticipated to take effect, according to officials.
According to sources, the Union Home Ministry’s direction to all states, which mandates that border adjustments be finalized by December 31, 2025, in order for them to be recognized for the 2027 Census, is the reason for the haste. In a letter dated June 29, Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, India’s Registrar General and Census Commissioner, directed chief secretaries of all states to make sure that administrative boundaries, including those of municipal corporations, revenue villages, tehsils, sub-divisions, and districts, are not altered between January 1, 2026, and March 31, 2027, when the Census operations are scheduled to take place.
The letter went on to say that as the Census needs consistent and stable administrative entities, any changes to current boundaries must be communicated to state census directorates and the Registrar General of India by December 31, 2025. The exercise can only start three months after boundary limitations are fixed, and enumeration blocks are carefully mapped to prevent duplication or omission during population census.
The Telangana administration will expedite the merger of GHMC and ULBs
