Telangana govt tables new municipality bill in state assembly

Hyderabad: Telangana government introduced the new municipal legislation on Thursday in a special two-day session of the legislative assembly.

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao introduced the bill in the assembly on Thursday. Among other provisions, the bill seeks to increase the age of superannuation for government officials including professors in medical and dental colleges of the state.

After the bill was introduced on 18th July, a day's time will be provided for the legislators to study it. After deliberations, the same will be passed on July 19.

The legislative council is also scheduled to meet on 19th July to pass the bill.

Once the legislature is passed, municipal elections are likely to be scheduled in the first week of August.

Last week, Chief Minister stated that the New Municipal Act should be brought in to eradicate corruption.

He said, "The New Municipal Act should be made to serve the people and to take care of their problems and issues. The Act should be stringent and help the development of towns in a better way."

Last week, a two-day session was called by the legislative assembly to pass the new Municipality Act through an official statement.

The decision to conduct a special session to pass the bill, however, was criticized by the opposition. BJP spokesperson NV Subhash demanded that the duration of the session to be extended to 10 days for discussion to discuss the ongoing water situation in the state.

One the other hand, Congress leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy said, "The High Court has directed the state election commission to conduct the municipal elections on the existing laws. This is a wasteful act of the state government."