After Gadwal, Jangaon and Sircilla, Asifabad joins the race; final notification by week-end

The ongoing exercise for reorganisation districts and other administrative units of revenue divisions and mandals has apparently come to an end informally, if not for practical purposes, with the number of districts after division is expected to be 31 in all likelihood.

The two-day process of consultations with ruling party leaders by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao concluded on Monday with the latter making up his mind and giving a go ahead indirectly for formation of 31 districts with Asifabad joining the list of proposed new districts along with the proposals of Sircilla, Jangaon and Gadwal which were given “no objection” on Sunday.

In the draft notification, it was only proposed to have 17 new districts along with the existing 10 taking the total to 27.

However, vociferous demands for Gadwal and Jangaon districts, including from the ruling party quarters, is understood to have made the political leadership to take the decision in their favour.

“The proposals of Sircilla and Asifabad districts were apparently cleared to give a feeling that the State Government has not given into the demand for Gadwal and Jangaon districts just like that or only due to pressure from the Opposition parties but it has been taken keeping in view the people’s opinion,” sources in the ruling party stated.

The final notification on new administrative units would be published by the week-end so that there is at least a couple of days time to make arrangements for celebrations in the new districts headquarters along with setting up skeletal offices to begin with, sources said. Two senior IAS officers were learnt to have been entrusted the job of finalising the division (adjustment) of employees among the existing and new districts by that time.

“The possibility of having another all-party meeting on new districts appears remote now since the State Government has accommodated most of the demands by increasing the number of districts, revenue divisions and mandals,” the sources stated. The high-power committee led by MP K. Keshava Rao and comprising another Member of Parliament B. Vinod Kumar and Vice Chairman of State Planning Board S. Niranjan Reddy is learnt to have been given the task of completing the formality of “taking along all” on new districts, although its officials task is to take a decision on new proposals for districts.

Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao held discussions with party leaders from Karimnagar, Warangal, Khammam, Adilabad and Hyderabad districts on Monday and it was decided that after reorganisation, all the districts would have an average of three-lakh households each for focused approach on poverty alleviation, proper utilisation of resources and faster growth.