Proposal pending for over a year, state government re-notifies formation of Nagrota Surian Nagar Panchayat
High Court had directed Urban Development Department to hear all 15 petitioners against earlier notification
The Department of Urban Development has issued a fresh notification for the constitution of Nagrota Surian Nagar Panchayat in the Jawali Assembly constituency of Kangra district after keeping the proposal in abeyance for 14 months. The latest notification, issued on Wednesday, was in continuation of the department’s earlier notification dated December 20, 2024. The proposed nagar panchayat had earlier appeared in the state gazette on December 26, 2024.
However, villagers had strongly opposed the decision to upgrade Nagrota Surian gram panchayat to a nagar panchayat by merging four adjoining gram panchayats of Katholi, Sugnara, Bassa and Nagrota Surian. The agitated villagers of the four panchayats had formed a Sangharsh Samiti under the leadership of Sanjay Mahajan, former pradhan of Nagrota Surian panchayat, and launched a stir against the government’s decision.
The samiti challenged the notification and filed a civil writ petition (CWP No. 6074/2025) in the Himachal Pradesh High Court, which disposed it of on November 19 last year with directions to the state Urban Development Department to consider the objections of the petitioners by granting them a personal hearing and take an appropriate decision in accordance with law.
Rajni Mahajan, GS Bedi and Surekha, former pradhans of Nagrota Surian, Katholi and Bassa panchayats, respectively, along with Praveen Kumar, former up-pradhan of Sugnara panchayat, alleged that the Urban Development Department issued the fresh notification under political pressure and against the wishes of the residents of the panchayats proposed to be merged. They contended that none of the four gram panchayats met the mandatory condition of having an annual income of at least Rs 5 lakh as stipulated under the Himachal Pradesh Municipal Act, 1994. Without fulfilling this criterion, the state government could not merge these panchayats to form a civic body, they argued.
Petitioner Sanjay Mahajan claimed that though the High Court had directed the authorities concerned to hear all 15 petitioners, only two objectors were granted a personal hearing in Shimla on December 31, 2025. “The new notification issued on February 25 is against the principles of natural justice and the interests of the residents of the four panchayats,” he alleged.
Mahajan said that the forcible decision of the state government to create the civic body against the demand and wishes of the villagers would boomerang on the ruling party in the upcoming panchayat and civic body elections and later in the Assembly elections due in December next year.
