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Government moves to merge urban outgrowths into Ahmedabad limits

Gandhinagar: The state urban development department has written to all eight municipal corporations, asking them to send proposals for merging of municipalities and gram panchayats on their outskirts into the corporations, within a fortnight.

The state government aims to complete this before the 2020 civic body elections.


A top state government officer said a formal circular has been sent to all municipal corporations, telling them to submit their action plans to merge nearby census towns, census villages and outgrowth areas into the municipal corporation concerned.

“According to the the census recommendations, the state government will have to take the final decision. All proposals for merging such towns, villages and outgrowth areas will be processed before February 2020, as the government has to consider the financial aspects of these amalgamations,’’ sources added.

Many municipalities, like Bopal-Ghuma in Ahmedabad, which have been identified as census town or outgrowth areas, will be added to AMC limits. The last time such an exercise was undertaken was in 2007, when 30 outgrowth areas were added to the AMC limits.

Similarly, Pethapur on the outskirts of Gandhinagar is expected to be brought under the GMC limits. Likewise outgrowth areas in Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Jamnagar, Junagadh and Bhavnagar will likely to be included in municipal corporation limits.

Barring Junagadh, elections for seven municipal corporations will be held in 2020, along with around 100 municipalities.

The state government aims to revise all city limits by the end of 2019, so that the 2020 civic body polls can be held with the new areas in the corporations.

The exercise is likely to significantly change the limits of municipal corporations and urban development authorities such as AUDA, SUDA and the like.

Sources said that apart from the change in administrative functioning, the move will have a political impact as well.

“The exercise is expected to be completed in two or three months. Gazette notifications will be published once the state cabinet approves the new city limits,” a source said.

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