Tamil Nadu has a new district: Kallakurichi will be 33rd

india

Updated: Jan 09, 2019 08:58 IST

Tamil Nadu will get a new district Kallakurichi to be carved out by bifurcating Villupuram, one of the largest in the southern state.

The new revenue division, 207 km from state capital Chennai, would be the 33rd district in the state.

Announcing this in the state assembly on Tuesday, chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said this would fulfil the two-decade-old demand of the people of Kallakurichi.

“The decision to carve out a new district was taken in view of administrative convenience,” Palaniswami said.

Late chief minister J Jayalalithaa had promised to make Kallakkurichi as a district in her 2016 election campaign.

This would help develop the backward region comprising the Kalroyan hill range of the Eastern Ghats. Tribals of this area often fall prey to middlemen scouting for woodcutters for the red sanders smuggling gang in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), which has its social base among the dominant OBC Vanniar community in northern Tamil Nadu, has welcomed the move.

PMK founder S Ramadoss said, “We welcome the government’s decision of making Kallakkurichi as a district.”

Kallakurichi MLA A Prabhu, owing allegiance to rebel AIADMK leader and AMMK chief, TTV Dhinakaran, had recently staged a walkout in the assembly protesting the delay over the creation of the new district.

Tiruppur was the last district to be formed in Tamil Nadu in 2008 with parts from Coimbatore and Erode districts.