Bihar cabinet approves proposal to set up 103 new nagar panchayats, 8 new nagar parishads

Bihar cabinet decisions: Bihar cabinet on Saturday approved a proposal to upgrade five nagar parishads to the level of municipal corporations, and to upgrade 32 nagar panchayats to nagar parishads. Apart from this, the proposal also sought approval to create eight new nagar parishads and as many as 103 new nagar panchayats, which has also been approved. The decision has been taken under the purview of the Bihar Municipal (Amendment) Act, 2020.

According to the approved proposal, of the 103 new nagar panchayats, two would be in the Patna district – Punpun and Paliganj – while eight would be in the Nalanda district, including Harnaut and Sarmera. Apart from this, Bhojpur district would get one new nagar panchayat, and Buxar would also get two new nagar panchayats. Four new nagar panchayats would be set up in the Rohtas district and seven would be established in Muzaffarpur. Nine new nagar panchayats would come up in the Darbhanga district.

Apart from that, two nagar panchayats in the East Champaran district would be upgraded to nagar parishad, while three in Begusarai district would also be upgraded. Three nagar panchayats in Gaya district would also be upgraded to nagar parishads.

Eight new nagar parishads that would come up include Bihta and Sampatchak in Patna, Barauni in Begusarai, Udakishanuganj in Madhepura, Triveniganj in Supaul, Tajpur and Shahpur Patori in Samastipur as well as Suryagadha in Lakhisarai.

The Sasaram nagar parishad in Rohtas district would be upgraded to a municipal corporation, and so would be the Motihari nagar parishad in East Champaran. Betiya nagar parishad in West Champaran district and the Madhubani nagar parishad in the Madhubani district would also become municipal corporations. Samastipur nagar parishad in Samastipur district would also be upgraded to a municipal corporation.

Earlier this year, Bihar had amended The Bihar Municipal Act of 2007. This was done because the Bihar Municipal Act, 2007, required all municipality bodies, be it nagar panchayats, parishads or municipal corporation, to have at least 75% of the population not related to agriculture. However, there was no provision for projecting non-agriculture dependent population in India, which made this figure hard to be determined.

As a result of this, many areas that needed to be converted into municipality areas for better development, could not be converted, because as per the Act, the courts had to either invalidate such moves or put a stay on them. The amendment to the Act in May 2020, however, changed this requirement, paving the way for the government to establish new municipality bodies or upgrade previous ones so that the development strategies for these areas could be developed in a more suitable manner.