The Mizoram cabinet on Tuesday decided to set up a new municipal council in Lunglei town in the south-central part of the state, an official statement said.
The meeting of the council of ministers chaired by chief minister Zoramthanga has unanimously approved the proposal for setting up Lunglei municipal council to address the problems of the people, the official statement said.
The municipal council is the long pressing demand of the people of Lunglei, the second largest town after state capital Aizawl.
The population of Lunglei according to the 2011 census is 57,011.
To initiate a faster developmental process with inclusive growth, Lunglei now has a separate planning board like High Powered Committee (HPC) to address the problems of the southern district.
The HPC is empowered to formulate district plan and schemes and implement district-level plans out of the outlay earmarked as discretionary funds.
It also reviews and monitors all district-level plan and projects.
Mizoram currently has one municipal corporation known as Aizawl Municipal Corporation (AMC), which was formerly known as Aizawl Municipal Council.
It may be mentioned that municipal corporation is mainly created for the administration of bigger cities, which have a population of over 1 lakh.
The municipal council is formed for the administration of smaller towns and cities which have a smaller population between 25,000 – 1 lakh.
The council of ministers meeting also approved the Mizoram Municipalities (Facilities to Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Chairman Vice Chairman and Councillors) (Amendment) Rules, 2021, the official statement said.
It approved Mizoram Road Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and Administrative Reforms Committee Volume-2 report and proposal from department of personnel and administrative reforms, the statement said.
It also granted the proposal for renaming Kolasib rural water, sanitation and hygiene (WATSAN) sub-division to Kawnpui WATSAN sub-division and sifting its headquarters from Kolasib to Kawnpui town in the northern part of the state, it said.
The meeting agreed to rename the Kolasib maintenance sub-division to the Kolasib WATSAN sub-division, it said.