GHAZIABAD: The district administration has set in motion a plan to integrate Loni and Khoda Makanpur nagar palikas within the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation (GMC). Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, during his recent visit to Ghaziabad, had asked the district administration to prepare the plan. The additional district magistrate (ADM) will act as the nodal officer for finalising it and sending it to the Meerut divisional commissioner and then the home department for approvals.The district administration has been collecting maps and population data for both areas, and the plan may be ready in the next two days.The executive officials of the nagar palikas and the GMC officials are now giving the final touches to the plan. We hope that in the next two days, the district administration will have the plan, said Ranvijay Singh, ADM, administration.The BJP, in the recently-held municipal polls, lost the chairperson seats in both the nagar palikas. In the 34-seat Khoda Makanpur nagar palika, the BJP won 17 wards, while in the 55-ward Loni nagar palika, the party won 25 seats. According to the BJP, the plan to integrate the nagar palikas into the GMC will help in the overall growth of the area and take care of civic issues related to water, sanitation, roads, etc. But the sitting chairpersons of the nagar palikas called it the BJPs ploy to gain control over the areas.The civic infrastructure of Khoda, be it water, roads and sanitation, is in a pathetic state. Its assimilation into the GMC will help Khoda come out of the civic mess, said Sunil Sharma, the BJP MLA of the Sahibabad assembly seat. Khoda-Makanpur is a part of his constituency.Mohini Sharma, the current chairperson of Khoda-Makanpur, who won the seat as an independent candidate by defeating BJPs Reena Bhati in the last elections, said, The GMC has not been able to solve the water scarcity in its wards, especially in Vijay Nagar and other areas. It has also failed to supply Ganga water in its wards, and yet the BJP is claiming that by incorporating Khoda-Makanpur into the GMC, all problems will disappear. It is fooling people. This ploy is to negate the mandate given by the people, and we will oppose it.Squeezed between Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad, the 12sqm Khoda-Makanpur nagar palika is among the most densely-populated areas in the country. Most inhabitants are migrant labourers. Its 2,000-odd narrow, unstructured lanes lack a proper drainage system and gets flooded during rains. Residents struggle for basic civic amenities, like drinking water. Garbage disposal is also in disarray.The 52sqm Loni nagar palika houses nearly 8 lakh people. Broken roads, flooding and clogged drains are the major problems in the area. Loni MLA Nand Kishor Gujjar said, I proposed a separate municipal corporation for Loni, but the chief minister felt its assimilation into the GMC is a better option. The Loni nagar palika remains short-staffed and steeped in corruption. If it becomes part of the GMC, the area will see all-round development, and we will weed out corruption.Reena Bhati, chairperson of Loni Nagar Palika, said, The BJP could not digest its defeat in the municipal polls. An independent candidate, like I, trounced its chairperson. They are now devising ways to bypass the mandate. If the assimilation takes place, the post of chairperson will automatically go.If the BJP government was so keen on Lonis development, it should have made the assimilation plan before the municipal elections. It raises serious doubts about the intention of the BJP. If the need arises, we will fight it out in the court because we feel it is unconstitutional, added Sharma.Former Sahibabad MLA Amarpal Sharma, husband of Mohini Sharma, also questioned the logic behind the move. The logic behind the bifurcation of states like UP, Bihar and MP and carving out new states was that it is easy to govern smaller states. But here, the BJP is defying that logic. The GMC already has 100 wards. Adding the 55 wards from Loni and 34 from Khoda-Makanpur takes it to 189 wards. The BJP is hard-selling the idea that the larger the area, the better will be the governance, which is nothing but hogwash, he said.

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