CHENNAI: The state government on Friday tabled a bill to suitably amend the Tamil Nadu Urban Local Bodies Act 1998 and declare local areas of historically important towns and pilgrimage towns into town panchayats, municipalities and corporations owing to rapid urbanisation and need for better infrastructure there.

Moving the bill in the House, state Municipal Administration Minister KN Nehru said that it has been brought to the notice of the government that in many of the district headquarters, historically important towns and pilgrimage towns having less than the prescribed population and income limit, there is continuous vertical growth. But the population criteria specified in subsection (1) of section 3 of the Tamil Nadu Act 9 of 1999 remains a hindrance to declaring such areas as town panchayats, municipalities and corporations. Hence, the bill.”