Himachal to have 5 MCs, 3 new for Solan, Palampur & Mandi

Shimla: Ahead of the upcoming elections to panchayati Raj institutions and Urban Local bodies, Himachal Pradesh Cabinet has raised the number of Municipal Corporations in the predominantly rural centric state to five.

Three new municipal corporations formed on Wednesday are Solan, Mandi and Palampur.

While Mandi is headquarter of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur's home district, Palampur is a small town in Kangra district –a strong fortress of the BJP and its veteran leader Shanta Kumar.

It's Shanta Kumar who has been instrumental in getting the Palampur town upgraded to the corporation status after he wrote a letter to the Chief Minister.

Solan is an important business town and gateway to Shimla–the state capital.

Two earlier corporations included Shimla and Dharamshala, both being developed as Smart cities.

Secretary Urban Development Rajneesh said on Wednesday the state government decision to upgrade three municipal councils to make Municipal Corporations and create six new nagar panchayats besides re-organization of few Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) by exclusion and inclusion of certain areas, will go a long way to the development of these bodies.

This decision was taken after taking suggestions and objections of the residents of the concerned areas. The factual report was taken from concerned Deputy Commissioners regarding suggestions/objections of the concerned people.

"Consequently, the Deputy Commissioners examined all aspects and a final report was sent to the government. The government after considering these suggestions and objections took the final decision," he explained.

Rajneesh said the notification of various areas in urban local bodies would be published soon and thereafter the work on forming ward etc would be taken up so that the elections in all these ULBs could be held along with other ULBs of the state.

He said the government has also decided to exempt land and buildings in newly included areas of these Urban Local Bodies from payment of general tax for a period of three years instead of previous provision of two years and to retain the customary rights as provided in the Wazib-Ul-Arz in the record of rights.

Before attaining the status of Municipal Corporation, the population of Municipal Council of Mandi was 26431, which would now go up to 41384. Similarly, the population of Municipal Council Solan was 39256 which would now be 47418 after attaining the status of Municipal Corporation.

The population of Municipal Council Palampur after getting the status of Municipal Corporation would go up to 40385.