Himachal Assembly passes HP Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill 2025

Shimla, Aug 29 (PTI) The Himachal Pradesh Assembly on Friday passed the HP Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill 2025, providing for holding the elections to newly created municipal corporations within two years, instead of six months amid opposition by the BJP.

The elections to newly created municipal corporations would now be held before September 2027, close to the next Assembly polls. The Amendment Bill was introduced in the Assembly on Thursday by Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Vikramaditya Singh and passed on Friday by voice vote amid protests by the BJP, which argued that the Bill was against the sentiments of the people.

"The new municipal corporations have been constituted to accommodate the urban expansion and improve the municipal services in urban areas but these corporations lacked essential infrastructure like staff, office space and financial resources necessary to effectively conduct elections and manage municipal affairs and as such it is proposed to amend the Act to provide that the first elections be held within two years," stated "objectives and reasons" of the Bill.

Replying to discussions, Rural Development and Panhayati Raj Minister Anirudh Singh said that the population of towns was increasing very fast and there was an urgent need to immediately check haphazard constructions.

The urban population increased by 60 per cent between 2012 and 2024 and reached 9.16 lakh, and there was no violation of Constitutional provisions, he said, citing examples that the elections in Haryana, Maharashtra and Assam were also postponed for similar reasons.

He said that the survey of OBCs (other backward classes) was done in November 2010 in rural areas only and the survey would now be done in urban areas as they do not want any injustice to be done to OBCs in urban areas, he argued.

Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur alleged that the government was flouting the Constitutional provision, and the amendment Bill was brought only to defer the elections to municipal bodies. He said that the party talking about the Constitution is itself "changing" it.

He said that the present Congress government constituted three municipal corporations, three municipal councils and 17 nagar panchayats against the sentiments of the people, and said that even if the bill was passed, it would not stand in the court.

Randhir Sharma (BJP) asked why the government was running from holding the elections while Satpal Sigh Sukhu (BJP) said that watching the mood of the people, the government was deferring the elections to all urban bodies on the pretext of OBC reservation.

Rakesh Jamwal, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal,Trilok Jamwal, Hansraj, Inder Sigh Gandhi, Dalip Thakur and Ashish Sharma (all BJP) vehemently opposed the Bill. PTI BPL MNK MNK