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Panchkula corporation heading for bifurcation
7 years on: State panel recommends corporation for P’kula, surrounding villages, separate civic body for Kalka, Pinjore
The Panchkula municipal corporation is heading for bifurcation seven years after it came into existence in March 2010.
A panel appointed by the state government under Ambala’s divisional commissioner has recommended a separate corporation for Panchkula city and its surrounding 21 villages and a common civic body for Kalka and Pinjore.
The report suggested that Panchkula city and its catchment fulfils the population criteria (at least 3 lakh) needed to form a corporation. Besides it has enough resources to sustain its expenditure and human resources. As far as Kalka and Pinjore are concerned, they fulfil the required norms for a common municipal council.
The report that was finalised on Tuesday will soon be submitted to the local bodies department before making its way to the state cabinet for the final decision.
Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who was in Panchkula on December 2, too announced that they would take the final decision on the issue keeping in view the ground situation and the cabinet consent.
In case the state finally issues notification on the lines of the committee’s recommendation, the wards will be carved out again. At present, the corporation has 20 wards, six of which fall in Pinjore and Kalka.
In tune with state norms
The panel’s recommendation, said sources, is in consonance with the norms of the local bodies department framed in 2010 for abolishing municipal corporation.
Moreover, the need for a separate corporation is emphasised for Panchkula due to its status as Haryana’s de facto capital. Also, the city needs to have same synergy with Mohali and Chandigarh in order to strengthen common infrastructure in the tricity.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s local legislators were also demanding a similar arrangement.
The Panchkula corporation was formed in March 2010 by merging the then municipal council with municipal committees of Kalka and Pinjore along with 42 villages.
But the move proved unfruitful, forcing Kalka legislator Latika Sharma to formally move a demand before the chief minister last month to exclude her areas of Kalka and Pinjore from the corporation.
Sharma claimed that the areas did not see any development. Her party colleague and Panchkula MLA Gian Chand Gupta too came out in her support and said that the constitution of the corporation in 2010 by the then Congress chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was faulty as it was done just to benefit real estate players in Pinjore area. He said Pinjore and Kalka were unnecessarily merged with the Panchkula civic body to fulfil the population criteria.
In the last MC House meet on December 21, Sharma tabled signatures of people from her constituency in support of her demand, even as the mayor, who belongs to Congress, passed a resolution for status quo.
