Bhubaneswar: Fulfilling their long demand, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation has decided to include 46 villages adjoining the city under its jurisdiction after examining applications from a total of 71 villages.The BMC will send the list of 46 villages, including Sijua, Tomando, Jagannathprasad, Daspur, Dhauli, Raghunathpur and Lingipur, to the state govt, which will bring out a formal notification regarding their inclusion. The addition of these villages will help villagers get facilities from the civic body.“After examining various factors such as their geographical location, population, contiguity with the current city (Bhubaneswar) border and a host of other factors, 46 villages have been selected. The list will be sent to the govt for consideration and necessary notification for the same,” said a senior BMC official.Earlier, 71 villages had shown interest in merging with the BMC’s area so that they could also avail of urban facilities like the city residents enjoy. But, 25 villages were not found eligible, the BMC officials said.Once under the BMC administration, the officials said, the residents will have to pay holding tax, obtain a trade licence for doing business and pay a user fee for municipal waste collection and other taxes for availing the services, the officials said. “We had collected resolutions from villagers who came to us through the block development officers for their inclusion in the BMC. After receiving the resolutions, the BMC examined them thoroughly to see how many of them fulfilled basic criteria,” the senior BMC official said.Out of the 71 villages, a majority of 66 from 12 panchayats come under the Bhubaneswar block, one panchayat and village come under Balianta, and one panchayat and four villages under the Jatni block.The BMC officials said the villages to be included may become part of the wards they are adjacent to, or the govt may create more wards to accommodate. The BMC now has 67 wards after the number increased from 60 in 2013. The BMC said some of the villages located close to the city still have not consented to be part of the civic body.
