Submission of voters list to EC by June 29

HYDERABAD: Municipal administration minister M Maheedhar Reddy on Wednesday informed the state Election Commission about submission of all details pertaining to boundaries of municipalities, voters’ list etc. by June 29 to facilitate the latter to issue a notification for conduct of elections as per schedule.Talking to newsmen at the Secretariat here, the minister said that the government would shortly announce creation of new municipalities and corporations in the state. Recommendations have been made for creation of five corporations and 50 municipalities across the state, but a final decision would be taken after seeing the viability of municipal bodies and panchayats concerned. Elections to the old and new bodies would be held separately. A decision would also be taken shortly in respect of expanding the limits of municipalities and corporations, he added.Referring to the vacancies in municipalities, Maheedhar Reddy said that the department has taken steps to fill about 4,000 posts in town planning, engineering, revenue, accounts and other departments in the next three months. The recruitment issue would be referred to the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission. Alternative arrangements would also be made to fill the vacancies if the APPSC fails to do it on time, he said.With regard to rabies cases and dog bite incidents, the minister sought  the cooperation of Blue Cross and other organisations to curtail the number of street dogs. In fact, the number of rabies deaths were less compared to last year. Besides creating awareness among the public on dog bites, steps have been taken to  sterilise and vaccinate street dogs. Of the four rabies cases in Rajahmundry, two victims have died due to bites by their pet dogs, he said.