Two panchayats merged into Jawali, number of wards rises to 11 from nine

Jawali, which was upgraded from a gram panchayat to a nagar panchayat in 2015 by merging the wards of some surrounding gram panchayats, will now comprise 11 wards instead of nine. The Urban Development Department has issued a notification regarding the merger of adjoining Keharian and Dann gram panchayats into Jawali nagar panchayat. With the merger of these panchayats, the area of Jawali nagar panchayat will expand to 9.03 km and its population will increase from 7,342 to 11,419. However, while the department has increased the number of wards of Jawali nagar panchayat, it has not altered the existing nine wards.

The new Keharian and Dann wards of Jawali nagar panchayat will have a population of 2,493 and 1,584, respectively. Keharian will be the largest ward in Jawali nagar panchayat after the implementation of the notification. It may be recalled that during the Virbhadra Singh government, the wards of Jawali, Keharian and Dann and the whole area of Nargala gram panchayat were merged to create Jawali nagar panchayat during 2015-16. But the BJP government formed in December 2017, on the demand of the affected population of the merged Nagrala gram panchayat, had omitted Keharian and Dann panchayat areas and re-merged them into the respective gram panchayats.

Intriguingly, after the Congress formed government in the state in December 2022, an exercise was started to re-merge the omitted panchayat areas into Jawali nagar panchayat and the Urban Development Department finally issued a notification in December last year.

Up in arms against the notification regarding the merger of Keharian gram panchayat into Jawali nagar panchayat, the affected villagers had lodged their protest and also submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister through the Jawali SDM on December 5 last year. The protest was held under the leadership of Rajneshwar Singh, local Block Development Committee (BDC) member.

However, the implementation of the notification was delayed following the public outcry. But just a few months before the upcoming elections to civic bodies, the authorities concerned are all set to implement the notification. They have proposed to conduct the elections to Jawali nagar panchayat with the enhanced number of 11 wards. The residents of Jawali nagar panchayat and persons willing to contest the upcoming civic body elections are awaiting the official declaration of the reservation roster of all 11 wards.

According to Ganesh Sharma, Secretary of Jawali nagar panchayat, the Deputy Commissioner, Kangra, had issued a notification regarding the delimitation of 11 wards of the nagar panchayat after the inclusion of two more wards on July 1 this year. The poll process in all these wards would be undertaken after the state government announces the civic body elections. He added that the government was yet to declare the reservation roster of the civic bodies.