GUJRAT, Oct 3: The Punjab Local Government Department has awarded the municipal committee status to six major towns of the district, including Gujrat city.

The district and tehsil administrations have also initiated the delimitation of the municipal committees. The proposed limits of wards and maps will be finalised till Oct 9.

Sources told Dawn on Wednesday that the district administration had sought the status of municipal corporation for Gujrat city and municipal committees for the remaining six major towns -- Jalalpur Jattan and Kunjah (Gujrat tehsil), Lalamusa, Kharian and Dinga (Kharian tehsil) and Sara-i-Alamgir from the third tehsil.

The government did not allow the municipal corporation status for Gujrat city and all the towns, except Kunjah, have been given the status of MC. Kunjah has been approved as town committee.

Prior to the 2001 local government system when the urban and rural divide had been eliminated and all the town and municipal committees put under the control of the Tehsil Municipal Administration, only Gujrat city had the status of the municipal committee whereas the rest of the cities were town committees.

This is for the first time that apart from Gujrat city, the five other towns of the district have been upgraded as far as the town’s status in the LG department is concerned.

District Coordination Officer Asif Bilal Lodhi told Dawn that according to the government policy the towns having a minimum population of 30,000 according to the census of 1998 had been given the status of municipal committee.

He said despite best efforts by the district government, the city could not achieve the municipal corporation status since its population according to the official document of 1998 was around 250,000, which should have been around 500,000 to achieve the target.

He said the same was the case with Kunjah Town whose population was below the requirement for having the MC status.

Mr Lodhi, who is also the district delimitation officer, said the delimitation process had also been started as all the assistant commissioners of the respective tehsils had been assigned the task and the proposed limits of wards and new maps of the towns would be submitted with his office by Oct 9.

He said the minimum population of a ward should be around 10,000 with the capacity of some 20 per cent variation and after the submission of the proposed delimitation, the authorities could hear objections. The process would complete by Oct 25, he added.