New district plans in Telangana hit legal block

Hyderabad: The state government’s plans to announce new districts from Dasara are likely to get entangled in a legal quagmire. The government and officials are actively working on reorganisation of the existing districts.

However, provisions of the Constitution (84th Amendment) Act, 2001 and the Constitution (87th Amendment Act), 2003, which clearly state that all Assembly constituencies in a district shall be confined within the territorial limits of that district, appear to have been overlooked.

Officials have drafted the new district proposals in such a manner that about 24 Assembly constituencies fall under the jurisdiction of two or three districts. This includes Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s home constituency Gajwel. Once the notification on new districts is issued, cases will follow.

Medak has been proposed to be trifurcated as Medak, Sangareddy and Siddipet districts. If this proposal is finalised, parts of the Gajwel constituency will fall in Medak district and some in the new Siddipet district.

The constituencies held by finance minister Etela Rajender (Hu-zurabad), panchayat raj minister Jupally Krishna Rao (Kollapur) and tourism minister Azmeera Chandulal (Mulug) will also spr-ead over two districts.

Asked about this, an official said that the government was aware of the problem and was exploring ways to overcome legal hurdles. “We will seek legal opinion from the law department once the draft notification is finalised. There will be several additions and deletions till the final notification is issued,” said Raymond Peter, the chief commissioner of land administrations, assigned with the task of new districts process.

“There are chances of the Centre approving the increase in Assem-bly constituencies in TS and AP as stated in AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. This problem could be overcome by reorganising the Assembly constituencies to suit new districts,” Mr Peter said.

However, the Centre has recently stated that the number of seats in the two assemblies cannot be increased without amending Constitutional provisions, which mandate that any such exercise will be based on the “first census after 2026.”

The current strengths of the Houses are determined on the basis of the 1971 census. Officials are drafting district proposals anticipating that the poll panel would take up reorganisation of the existing seats before the 2019 elections, but it is due in 2026.