Letter to CM: Stop neglecting Berhampur Municipal Corporation

Hon’ble Chief Minister Sir,           

As you are aware, Berhampur is one of the major cities of Orissa and the only urban hub in the backward southern region of the State.  After years of popular demand, Berhampur, the oldest Municipality of the state, was elevated to a Municipal Corporation in December 2008. The Gazette notification announcing the formation of Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BMC) clearly stated the boundary of the Corporation which included 14 Panchayats spread over some 26 villages. The people of the city kept waiting for the merger of these villages with the larger body of Berhampur Municipal Corporation which is necessary for planned development of the city. Months have passed since the decision for formation of Berhampur Municipal Corporation but these villages still continue to be part of the respective Panchayats damaging all hopes for the planned development of the city. In the mean time the process of Census 2011 has also been completed, but unfortunately the population of these villages were excluded from the population figures of Berhampur city. This seems to be a well thought out conspiracy of some vested interest to keep the city of Berhampur truncated so that it remains perennially backward and loses out on important government schemes like JNNURM which take population size of the cities as one of the parameters.  Notwithstanding the fact that the population has rapidly grown in the villages surrounding Berhampur city, the recent notification of Panchayat polls in these villages have dashed all hopes for their merger with the Berhampur Municipal Corporation and expansion of the limits of the Urban local body. While there are many more Panchayats and at least 3 NACs demanding to be considered as part of the larger area of Greater Berhampur, the state Government move to conduct Panchayat polls in villages which were declared a part of the Corporation a couple of years ago can only be termed as regressive and discriminatory.

This raises some important issues which only the state government can answer;

First, why the state government repeatedly follows discriminatory policies towards cities outside the state capital like Berhampur and can’t see their developmental and infrastructure needs? Should it not look beyond Bhubaneswar?

Second, while states like Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra are trying to merge more and more villages on the city outskirts with the existing urban bodies to ensure that they are eligible for major central plans and their future development is not hampered (Example: Greater Hyderabad, Greater Visakhapatnam, Greater Mumbai etc.) why the government of Orissa is trying to scuttle such genuine needs in case of Berhampur city?

Third, when the Cuttack and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporations were formed, more than 60 Panchayats were merged with these urban bodies, then why this discrimination for Berhampur city? Why the State Government is playing with the future of more than 1 lakh people in these 26 villages on the outskirts of Berhampur city by denying them urban amenities and by going back on their proposed merger with the BMC?

Fourth, Berhampur Municipal Corporation is working with the same set of officials who worked under the erstwhile Municipality and yet the state government is unmoved. For example, the former executive officer of Berhampur Municipality is continuing as the Municipal Commissioner making the intention of the state government suspect.

Fifth, As per Section-6 of Orissa Municipal Corporation Act, 2003, a Municipal Corporation need to have at least 39 wards under it, but how come the policy is not applied for Berhampur which has only 37 wards under the present Municipal limits?

Sixth, How can a state government after declaring a measure through an official gazette of merger of villages with an existing urban body can go back on this when the all important Census process is just over and a Panchayat election is just round the corner.

Seventh, why the state government is so callous and insensitive when it comes to Berhampur city, which is considered as the only hope for an otherwise backward region of South Orissa. The funds that are being provided to the city are meager and not a single major infrastructure project has been carried out by the state governmet in the past decade. In the absence of big cities and gainful employment oppurtinities lakhs of people of south Orissa migrate to cities in neighbouring states and it seems the state government is totally unmindful of the large scale migration that is happening in these backward pockets due to the lack of opportunities in nearest urban areas where infrastructure provisions remain woefully inadequate.

The people of Berhampur demand answers from the state government which has deliberately neglected the city and has choked all channels for its development. How else can one explain the recent move to go against a decision taken by the Government itself a couple of years ago for merger of areas on the city outskirts to form the larger body of Berhampur Municpal Corporation?  Notwithstanding this, we expect you to take a just decision keeping the larger interests of Berhampur city in mind and hope for an early action as far as merger of these villages with Berhampur Municipal Corporation is concerned.

With Warm Regards,

R.P.Tripathy