Maharashtra Urban Development Department issued a preliminary notification for the re-inclusion of 14 villages of Thane district in Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) jurisdiction.
In March, the then Urban Development Minister and current Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced in the State Assembly while replying to a calling attention motion for re-inclusion of 14 villages, and instructed the officials concerned to study the legal aspects, as it would pave the way for the development of those villages.
The villages which will be brought under the NMMC limits are Dahisar, Dahisar Mori, Mokashi Pada, Nighu, Bambali, Valivali, Narivali, Pimpri, Nagaon, Vakalan, Bale, Bhandarli, Uttarshiv and Ghoteghar in Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation.
Earlier, these villages were under NMMC, but at the time some local leaders demanded to exclude them from the corporation. However, local people have been seeking re-inclusion due to lack of development works.
Further, the Urban Development Department has requested the State Election Commission to postpone the Gram Panchayat elections in Thane taluka till December 2022 due to the delimitation process.
The State Election Commission has announced the election schedule for Gram Panchayats in the State for the period from January 2021 to May 2022. However, since the process of inclusion of these villages is underway, a preliminary notification has been issued in this regard.
“As per the announced schedule of Gram Panchayat Elections, the elections were held in these Gram Panchayats and after that, the delimitation process will cease to exist. Elections to the newly established civic authorities will have to be held resulting in double expenditure on elections,” officials said.
Deputy Secretary of Urban Development Department Kailas Badhan also wrote to the Secretary of the State Election Commission to postpone the elections.
