Hubballi: The long-pending exercise to expand the limits of the civic body aiming at covering developed areas in the surroundings of the city is halted with the commencement of the process to bifurcate the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC).
By issuing the gazette notification and also inviting objections or suggestions, the government has initiated the process to divide the municipal corporation into two. It has proposed Dharwad City Municipal Corporation with an area of 120.94 square km, and Hubballi City Municipal Corporation having 127.05 square km, also mentioning the boundaries. With this, the attempts to expand the HDMC’s area from nearly 248 sq km to most of the 402.08 sq km of proposed local planning area as per the master plan (CDP) of the Hubballi-Dharwad Urban Development Authority (HDUDA) has taken a backseat. Bifurcation will also result in HDMC losing its tag of being the second largest municipal corporation in the state.
Before the issue of separate municipal corporation gained heat and the HDMC general body unanimously gave nod to send proposal for this, the civic body had started the preliminary process to expand the HDMC area keeping the CDP of the HDUDA in view. But, five adjacent Gram Panchayats were not ready to handover some of their areas.
According to HDMC officials, post bifurcation, Ward No 1 to 26 will come under Dharwad corporation, while Hubballi corporation will have areas from Ward No 27 to 82 .
‘Bifurcation first’
“As the process of bifurcation of the existing area of the HDMC into two corporations has begun, procedures related to area expansion is halted for the time being. After separate corporations come into existence, they can go for area expansion as per the CDP, for which the consent of villages is also needed,” said HDMC Commissioner Ishwar Ullagaddi.
Mayor Ramanna Badiger said, the process of bifurcation now includes only the existing area of the corporation, and after the bifurcation takes place, both bodies can try for area expansion, for which there was a demand.
Leader of House in HDMC Veeranna Savadi (Ward No 46 in Hubballi) also said the area expansion process stopped now can be resumed by two corporations separately after they are bifurcated and start functioning. “Then, we will take steps to include developed areas that are in CDP limits but not under the corporation limits now,” he said.
For the expansion of their boundary, HDMC Additional Commissioner (in-charge) Vijaykumar R said, both corporations after coming into existence have to make separate proposals.
Leader of Opposition in HDMC Rajashekhar Kamati representing Ward No 4 in Dharwad stated that there was a demand to increase the area of the corporation, and that would be done after Dharwad gets a separate corporation, as there are legal hurdles to do that now.
Former mayor Shivu Hiremath (Ward No 18 in Dharwad) said Dharwad city has grown upto High Court bench, and expansion of the new Dharwad corporation’s limits to areas including Belur Industrial Area and IIT can be considered after the new corporation is created.