The assurance comes in the wake of a petition filed by Bhiwandi resident Dattatray Punyarthi and ex-president of the Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Council Rizwan Bubere. Punyarthi and Bubere had objected to the priority given to the formation of Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation.

In October 1996, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi had announced the constitution of Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation further stating that similar proposals for Bhiwandi, Malegaon and Akola are under active consideration.

The petitioners had moved the court arguing that Bhiwandi should have been considered before Ulhasnagar. First, because it had a larger population, second the Bhiwandi council's area was approximately twice the size of Ulhasnagar's. Third, being a powerloom centre, Bhiwandi assumed greater economic importance. Around 30 percent of powerloom production in India comes from Bhiwandi-Nizampur, it added.

The petitioners further claimed that over four lakh looms in Bhiwandi employ over five lakh people and the Bhiwandi council's annual revenue is Rs 135 crore against Ulhasnagar's Rs 43 crore.

After the petitioners sought the court's intervention in 1996, Joint Secretary of the Urban Development Department had filed an affidavit revealing that after the planning department's approval the Bhiwandi proposal was waiting for the finance department's nod after which it will be put before the cabinet.

The petition, which came up for hearing today after two years, alleged that while some municipal councils in Maharashtra were transformed into corporations, the Bhiwandi proposal was kept in cold storage. They alleged political motives behind the delay.

The next hearing on the petition was adjourned to July 16 along with similar petitions from other municipal councils aspiring to be corporations.

Assistant government pleader S KShinde said the Bhiwandi proposal was once put before the cabinet. However, the cabinet sent it back to the UDD seeking clarifications which will take a month.

The proposal on converting Bhiwandi civic council into a corporation will be placed again before the state cabinet which, the counsel said, will take a decision latest by August 30.