Villagers oppose merger for Solan MC upgrade

Tribune News Service

Solan, September 21

Residents of eight panchayats in the precinct of Solan are opposing their merger with the town municipal council for its upgrade to a municipal corporation.

A sangharsh samiti headed by Kiran Kishor has been constituted to oppose the merger of the villages. The samiti today gave a memorandum to the district administration against the proposal. It threatened to boycott the ensuing panchayat poll if the villages were merged with the municipal council against the will of the villagers.

It said that around 90 per cent of the villagers were dependent on agriculture and in case their villages were merged with the municipal council, they would be deprived of the benefits of rural schemes such as the MGNREGA.

The villagers said the criterion of 40,000 population should be applicable to Solan also and the draft notification for the inclusion of eight panchayats in the municipal council should be withdrawn. They added that their objections to the decision should be sent to the Urban Development Department, which had issued the draft notification.

As per the August 24 notification, the panchayats of Anji, Kothon, Chambaghat, Saproon, Padag, Basal, Salogra and Kather having a population of 23,722 are proposed to be merged with the Solan municipal council. The villagers have been given six weeks to submit their objections, following which the process to notify the municipal corporation would begin.

The population of Solan town, according to the 2011 Census, was 39,256 but the population of 50,000 is a key criterion for the upgrade of a municipal council to a corporation. Though the state government reduced the population criterion to 40,000 in the recent Vidhan Sabha session, it would not be applicable to Solan with retrospective effect.

With the panchayat and civic body elections slated for the year end, the government has a tough task in hand that could anger the villagers.

Submit memo to district administration

• The samiti on Monday gave a memorandum to the district administration against the proposal
• It threatened to boycott the ensuing panchayat poll if the villages were merged with the municipal council against the will of the villagers
• It said around 90 per cent of the villagers were dependent on agriculture and in case their villages were merged with the municipal council, they would be deprived of the benefits of rural schemes such as the MGNREGA