Palampur MC expansion facing hurdles

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, August 25

Palampur, the state’s oldest urban body established in 1948, has not been expand since Independence. Though the population around the town has grown to about 50,000, the population within municipal limits has remained 3,500 only, making it the smallest municipal council of the country.

Despite the fact that the town is in dire need of expansion, sources here said those who had their commercial establishments outside the municipal limits were not allowing it to happen. The reason is that such hotels are enjoying all privileges of the urban centre but are not paying any taxes to the urban body. Many hotels and commercial complexes are owned by political leaders and influential people of Dharamsala.

President of the Palampur MC Radha Sood said the House had passed a resolution and sent it to the government to expand the municipal limits of the town. The MC was bearing the burden of all villages, which had got converted into commercial hubs. Even if the population of the town was just 3,500 on the paper, the MC was catering to the needs of about 50,000 without charging any taxes from them, she said.

Ashish Butail, Congress MLA, said during the stint of previous Congress government, then Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh had offered to convert Palampur into a corporation. However, the residents of adjoining panchayats did not give their consent.

The MC is facing a big challenge of the solid waste management. The solid waste management site that the town had in the adjoining village Luna has been closed.

The president of the council said certain people went to court after one retaining wall of the site collapsed and waste slipped into a rivulet. Now, the situation was that they had the machinery for the treatment of the solid waste, but no functional site. “We have started door-to-door collection of garbage within municipal limits. The waste is being treated at the treatment facility of Aima panchayat,” she said.

She, however, added that sooner or later, the MC would have to create its own solid waste management facility.