After Jali Patan Panchayath, Heble Panchayath Councillors demand bigger municipality for Bhatkal

Bhatkal 5 December 2018: (Bhatkallys News Bureau) Days after a few Councillors of Bhatkal Jali Patan Panchayath, led by Councillor Advocate Imran Lanka, batted for merging their respective wards of the Panchayath with Bhatkal Town Municipal Council (TMC) similar calls are being made by Councillors at Heble Panchayath of Bhatkal. Imran Lanka, earlier last month wrote a letter to Jali Patan Panchayath President Syed Aadam Panambur, seeking his assistance in merging a few wards of the Panchayath with TMC, the letter was present in the monthly general body meeting and was discussed among the Councillors, the issue was later postponed to be discussed in the next meeting as the Councillors could not come to a mutual conclusion, as another section of Councillors advocated merging the wards with Heble Gram Panchayath and Shirali Grama Panchayath, all this to get a CMC status. Imran's letter had cited less developmental work being undertaken at a few wards and that merging with TMC and later converting it into CMC would result in more development in their respective areas. Similar calls are now being made by a few Councillors at Heble Gram Panchayath, who are seeking public support to merge a few wards with TMC citing similar reasons as Imran Lanka, adding that the merging will result in more developmental work in the localities. One of the local Councillor Syed Ali Maliki, has written to the local organisations and executive committees of a few wards including Hanifabad, Rahmatabad, Firdous Nagar, Talha colony, Master colony and Jamia Abad seeking their help and support to ensure the merging with TMC. Speaking to Bhatkallys.com earlier, Syed Ali had added "We don't get support for developmental work in our areas ass expected or is shown, hence we are forced to now give this option a thought, we will write to concerned people and committees in every area and seek their support in making this possible". Asked about the issue, Bhatkal TMC President Sadiq Matta had earlier told Bhatkallys.com that they haven't received any official application for that, but if they do, they will give it a thought and follow the due process. The process of merging wards into another local administration includes, passing of the resolution in the general body meeting, followed by sending the resolution for approval to the District Deputy Commissioner who after examining the request and its needs approve it. For the time being for both Imran and Syed Ali the challenge ahead is to pass the resolution in the general body meeting amidst the objections of other Councillors, while Syed Ali is confident of securing confidence of over 15 Councillors (Majority at Heble Gram Panchayath) before the matter is proposed in the general body meeting, Imran whose request was already presented in the meeting last month had tough time to secure majority for his cause, however it will be interesting to see if he can secure support in the next meeting where the issue will once again be taken up for discussion. (Bhatkallys Special Reports Bureau/ Ismail Zaorez)