Hinjilicut: Hinjilicut, the second largest town of Ganjam district, was finally upgraded to a municipality from a notified area council (NAC) ending years of wait, a report said Wednesday.
A letter of the director, municipal administration (26789 and 26792 dated November 18) according municipality status to the civic body reached the NAC office here Wednesday. The report spread cheers among residents as well as civic body employees.
Later, at a specially convened meeting of the elected members of the council, executive officer Ashok Kumar Panda read out the notification according municipality status to the NAC by the state housing and urban development department.
All the councilors including chairperson Gouri Panigrahi, presiding over the meeting, extended overwhelming support to the grant of municipality status to the civic body.
The chairperson, executive officer and councilors also expressed thanks to the local MLA and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for grant of municipality status to the civic body.
Sources said the demand to upgrade the NAC to a municipality was raised six years back.
In 2011 census, Hinjilicut having a population of 24671 was declared as the second largest town in Ganjam district after Berhampur. However, it failed to meet the criteria of having a population of 25,000 required for becoming a municipality.
Later, efforts were made to merge P Ramachandrapur village in nearby Sikiri panchayat to meet the population criteria of a municipality. The census report put the population of P Ramachandrapur village at 456.
A meeting of the gram sabha, gram panchayat and panchayat samiti was held where a resolution was passed supporting the merger of the village in Hinjilicut NAC and a simultaneous notification was issued in this regard May 24.
The municipal director gave permission (letter no-18341, dated-August 11) for merger of P Ramachandrapur village in the Hinjilicut NAC after it did not receive any complaints against the merger within one month of its earlier notification.
The housing and urban development department in another notification September 21 proposed to accord municipality status to the NAC based on its population, density of population, revenue collection, income from non-agricultural sources and economy.
It also set a one month time to receive complaints from people to be submitted before the district collector. As no complaints were received within the period, Ganjam collector recommended the municipal director to grant municipality tag to the civic body October 26. PNN