Telangana HC: Plea opposes inclusion of Manuguru scheduled area into municipality

Hyderabad: On Thursday, the Telangana High Court asked the state government to respond to petitions filed against the decision of the previous State government to include Manuguru, a notified scheduled area, into the municipality.

The Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Anil Kumar Jukanti, on Thursday was adjudicating the petition filed by Kodi Nagaraju and two others from Kotha Kondapuram, Manuguru municipality, Kothagudem, seeking a direction to suspend the operation of Telangana Municipalities Act, 2019 concerning Manuguru, a scheduled area which was included into the municipality under Schedule I of the Act.

Chief Justice Alok Aradhe, after hearing the contentions of the counsel for the petitioner, who was vehemently opposing the decision of the State government to include Manuguru into the municipality, observed, “Logically speaking, if Manuguru is made municipality, there would be a better unit of administration and public in general will be benefited more but for the petitioner, who is contesting the ensuing Panchayat elections is focused on keeping Manuguru as gram panchayat.”

The counsel for the petitioner informed the court that the Telangana Municipalities Act 2019 has no application to schedule areas, more specifically to Manuguru, a notified schedule area and sought a direction to exclude Manuguru as a municipality from the Schedule of Telangana Municipalities Act 2019 and notify Manuguru as gram panchayat given the ensuing panchayat elections.

The Division Bench issued notices to the principal secretaries to the Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Panchayat Raj Department, Tribal Welfare Department, commissioner, Panchayat Raj and Rural Development, commissioner and director, MA&AD, district collector, Bhadradri Kothagudem and the commissioner of Manuguru municipality, directing them to respond to the contentions of the petitioners within four weeks.

The case was adjourned by four weeks for filing counter affidavits.