OKARA: The Punjab government has raised the status of the Okara Municipal Committee to the municipal corporation (MC) and notified the new status.

The urban population of Okara city was 357,935 in the last census. Deputy Commissioner Maryam Khan as demarcation officer extended the limits of Okara urbanity to these 17 surrounding villages: 51/2L, 53/2L, 53/2L, 54/2L, 55/2L, 56/2L, 57/2L, 49A/2L, 3/4L, 39/3R, 36-36/2RA, 35/2RA, 33/2R, 32/2RA, 38/2R, 32/2RA and 34/2RA. These 17 villages consist of 72,832 people and this way, the Okara MC’s population is 430,766.

Similarly, Union Council Bangla Gogera has been upgraded to town committee after its area was extended to Chak No 33/GD, Baghwanpura, Thatta Syyedan, Dholi Kitchchi and Arazi Shanker Das. Earlier, village Dhota was included in Bangla Gogera limits but resident Arslan Gulzar Bhatti filed a petition in the court of the Sahiwal commisioner against the decision and got the decision cancelled.

The Basirpur MC was demoted to town committee because of its less population required for the municipal committee status under the new local government laws. Other municipal committees Hujra Shah Muqeem, Dipalpur and Renal Khurd kept their prior status of MC category B.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2019