On December 25, GHMC announced a major expansion. It merged 27 neighbouring municipalities. The new civic body now has 12 zones, 60 circles, and 300 wards. A revised jurisdiction map was released, but it excluded Secunderabad Cantonment. Secunderabad Cantonment covers about 10,000 acres. It has seven land categories. The Indian Army owns A1 and A2 lands, about 5,670 acres. The Central government owns B1 lands (414 acres). About 2,676 acres of B2 lands are privately owned by residents. B3 lands (501 acres) are old grant lands held by the Indian government, and B4 lands (98 acres) are vacant. Cantonment land (C category) covers 260 acres, with 160 acres civilian space. Out of these, around 3,071 acres are proposed to join GHMC. This includes 2,676 acres of private B2 lands, 235 acres of civilian areas, and 160 acres of cantonment land. The Indian Army and Central government will keep control of the rest. The omission of the cantonment area in the merger highlights the long-standing demand to merge civilian zones with GHMC. Secunderabad Cantonment started in 1798, under British-Nizam alliance. It still operates separately under the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB), run by the Defence Ministry. Residents and civic groups want the cantonment merged with GHMC. They say this would solve poor infrastructure and governance problems by linking it to a bigger urban body. After the Defence Ministry decided to merge civilian cantonment areas nationwide, talks began in 2022. A committee from Telangana’s Municipal Administration department was formed. The state gave a no-objection certificate. Then, the Union government created a high-level committee and asked SCB to submit a report within one month. Since then, there has been no public update. "There has been complete silence after the committee was asked to submit its report. While Hyderabad has been developing rapidly, the Cantonment continues to function under outdated regulations. Building bylaws dating back to 1924 are still in force, infrastructure is poor, and there is a growing civic deficit," said Sanki Ravinder Babu, general secretary of NGO Cantonment Vikas Manch. Not all residents are sure the merger will help. Some want immediate elections within the cantonment instead. Activist Telukunta Satish Gupta said, "We feel the merger may not bring much change. What we need first are elections to be held here." Cantonment board elections have not occurred since 2020. The last polls were in January 2015. "Nearly 12 years have passed without an elected civilian body. Critics say this deprives thousands of residents of democratic rights. The lack of infrastructure development is often blamed on delayed GHMC merger, but more urgently it is due to no elected representatives," Gupta added.