(1) Every municipal council may for the purpose of this Act, acquire and hold property both movable and immovable, whether within or without the limits of the¹[municipal area].

(2) All property of the nature herein specified, and not being speciallyreserved by the Government, shall be vested in and belong to the municipal council and shall, together with all other property of whatsoever nature or kind not being specially reserved by the Government, which may become vested in the municipal council, be under its direction, management and control and shall be held and applied by it as trustee, subject to the provisions and for the purposes of this Act, that is to say, --

(a) all public town-walls, gates, markets, slaughter houses, manure and night-soil depots, and public buildings of every description;

(b) all public streams, tanks, reservoirs, cisterns, wells, springs, aqueducts, conduits, tunnels, pipes, pumps and other water works and all bridges, buildings, engines, works, materials and things connected therewith, or appertaining thereto, and also any adjacent land not being private property appertaining to any public tank or well;

(c) all public sewers and drains, and all sewers, drains, tunnels, culverts, gutters and water courses, in, alongside or under any street, and all works, materials and things appertaining thereto, as also all dust, dirt, dung, ashes, refuse, animal matter or filth or rubbish of any kind collected by the municipal council from the streets, houses, privies, sewers, cess-pools or elsewhere;

(d) all public lamps, lamp-posts and apparatus connected therewith, or appertaining thereto;

(e) all lands and buildings transferred to it by the Government, by gift or otherwise, for local public purposes;

(f) all public streets and the pavement, stones and other materials thereof and also all trees, erections, materials, implements and things provided for such streets:

Provided that lands transferred to the municipal council by the Government under clause (e) shall not, unless otherwise expressly provided in the instrument of transfer, belong by right of ownership to the municipal council but shall vest in it subject to the terms and conditions of the transfer, and on the contravention of any of the said terms or conditions, the lands with all things attached thereto, including all fixures and structures thereon, shall vest in the Government and it shall be lawful for the Government to resume possession thereof.

(3) It shall be competent to the Government from time to time, by notification, to take over any property vested or vesting in the municipal council under this section on such terms as the Government may determine.

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1. Substituted by Act 36 of 1994 w.e.f. 1.6.1994.