HYDERABAD: With the state government deciding to reorganise the zones and circles of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for administrative convenience and to ensure better civic amenities to citizens, the corporation has begun the exercise. It has decided to seek the services of retired IAS officer M Prasada Rao for reorganisation of circles and zones. GHMC commissioner B Janardhan Reddy has constituted a seven-member committee for formulation of guidelines.
The other day, minister for municipal administration and urban development KT Rama Rao directed the GHMC commissioner to increase the number of circles from 30 to 50 and zones from six to 10 and submit a detailed report to the government at the earliest so that it can be placed before the cabinet for approval.
The seven-member committee consists of additional commissioner (admin) CN Raghu Prasad, additional commissioner (finance) D Jayraj Kennedy, zonal commissioner (east) S Srinivas Reddy, zonal commissioner (Kukatpally) J Shankaraiah, zonal commissioner (Secunderabad) CN Raghu Prasad, chief city planner S Devender Reddy and chief engineer (maintenance) M Ziauddin.
As the city has 150 wards, it was decided to have one circle for three wards and one zone for five circles. The Prasada Rao Committee had suggested in the past that the number of zones can remain at five but the number of circles needed to be increased from 18 to 30 basing on population to provide a decentralised set-up and to improve urban governance and service delivery. In 2016, the GHMC reorganised the circles by fixing the boundaries of 30 circles on population basis.