Process to upgrade Solan municipal committee restarts

Ambika Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Solan, August 10

As the civic body elections near, the exercise to upgrade the state’s fastest growing municipal committee (MC) of Solan to a corporation has begun once again.

• Also read: Proposal to merge Baddi, Nalagarh MCs

The district administration is preparing a proposal to be sent to the state government. As the 2021 Census has been put on hold, the move to freeze the boundaries of the administrative units since December 2019 is not applicable now, say officials. This has paved the way for the upgrade of the municipal committee.

The exercise to upgrade the Solan MC to a corporation began in November 2014 but it failed to materialise due to various impediments — it must fulfil two major conditions of a population of 50,000 and an annual income of Rs 2 crore.

Deputy Commissioner KC Chaman said, “Efforts are afoot to upgrade the Solan municipal committee to a corporation and the case will be sent to the state government soon”.

“The municipal committee was constituted in 1960 and the town population, as per the 2011 Census, was 39,256. The residents, however, point out that the latest population figure should be considered for Solan, as the town has witnessed a steep rise in population in the last one decade. A population growth rate of 57.26 per cent, which was the highest in the state, has been registered in Solan in the last decade and the population is now at least 60,000,” said Mukesh Gupta, president of the Beopar Mandal.

The other criteria of Rs 2 crore annual revenue stands fulfilled. The revenue of the MC was over Rs 9.55 crore in 2016-17, Rs 10.51 crore in 2017-18 and Rs 10.74 crore in 2018-19, according to the data secured from officials.

The administration has been trying to include nearby areas such as Rabon, Chambaghat, Saproon, Basal having a population of 11,208 into Solan to achieve the population target but a lack of consensus among the villagers and their opposition impeded the efforts.

Various Centrally-sponsored projects such as the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation could not be secured for Solan in the absence of the corporation status. The upgrade to a corporation would ensure the availability of adequate funds for better civic amenities such as water, roads, solid waste management.

2 conditions fulfilled

• To be upgraded to a corporation, Solan must fulfil two major conditions of a population of 50,000 and an annual income of Rs2 crore
• Population growth rate of 57.26% has been registered in Solan in the last decade and the population is at least 60,000
• The revenue of the MC was over Rs10.74 cr in 2018-19