BHUBANESWAR: The Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) Department has asked the urban local bodies (ULBs) to properly assess existing properties before bringing new villages and panchayats under their jurisdiction.
Addition of nearby villages and panchayats to municipalities and ULBs is undertaken to expand the boundaries for different reasons. But, one of the main problems faced by the ULBs is the delay in providing civic amenities to new areas.
It has been found that soon after integration, complaints of lack of civic amenities pile up before the municipalities.
A senior official said people are quick to demand facilities provided in the municipalities, irrespective of the time when the villages were added to the municipalities.
The transition from rural to urban areas gets further complicated as different services are provided and managed by separate Government departments.
Water supply in rural region is provided by the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) and roads are managed by the panchayats.
Integrating all the services under the municipalities is a time consuming task. Director, Municipal Administration, Sanjiv Mishra said a prior assessment of the properties like roads, street lights, water supply and other details should be undertaken so as to enable a smooth transition.
District administrations should include details like cost of maintenance of different services in the proposal for integration of rural and urban areas.
This will make it easier for ULBs to ascertain the requirement of the new areas and help the H&UD Department release funds accordingly, Mishra said.