TS districts to add up to CM’s lucky number

Work begins on carving out new districts

Hyderabad: How many districts are there in Telangana? Well, very soon the newly-created State will carve out a few more districts that add up to the lucky number of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao: 6. Looks like Telangana is going to have one district more than that of the united Andhra Pradesh.

With strong intention to keep the promise made by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi during elections on creation of districts, the Chief Minister has instructed the Revenue Department to work out the new districts on a priority basis. KCR made it clear to the department officials to create 14 new districts which add up to 24.

The plan is to have a population anywhere between 13 lakh and 16 lakh in each district for effective administration. At present, the average population of each district is around 37 lakh as the total population of the State is 3.6 crore. The national average of the population of each district is around 18 lakh.

In fact, the districts in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal registered highest density of population from 35 lakh to 37 lakh. The Revenue Department has already taken up a study to mark the geographical boundaries for the proposed new districts to be carved out in two years, according to a top revenue official.

The proposed new districts are - Manchiryal (Adilabad district), Jagityal and Sirisilla (Karimnagar), Suryapet (Nalgonda), Sanga Reddy and Siddipet (Medak), Kothagudem (Khammam), and Janagaon and Jayashankar districts in Warangal. The plans are also afoot to create Hyderabad East, Central, Charminar, Golconda and Secunderabad districts in the State capital.

The notification for the constitution of the committee headed by Chief Secretary for reorganisation of districts would be issued in a month. The reorganisation work will be done as per the Section 3 of the Andhra Pradesh Districts (Formation) Act, 1974, said Principal Secretary (Revenue) B R Meena.

The last district carved out in the united Andhra Pradesh was Ranga Reddy in 1978. The main challenge before the government is to divide the agency areas in Khammam and Adilabad districts and demarcate geographical lines between the districts. The Section 3 of the Andhra Pradesh Districts (Formation) Act, 1974 says:

“The government may, by notification, from time to time, for the purpose of revenue administration, divide the State into such districts with such limits as may be specified therein; and each district shall consist of revenue divisions and each revenue division shall consist of such mandals and each mandal shall consist of such villages as the government may, by notification from time to time, specify in this behalf”.

Once the notification is issued for the creation of districts, the government will invite suggestions from people and social organisations residing within the district, revenue division, mandal and village who are likely to be affected.

By:Patan Afzal Babu