Telangana new districts help ministers, many to become district in-charge

HYDERABAD: District reorganisation in Telangana state is slated to benefit some ministers who had not been made in-charge of districts. The number of districts has gone up from 10 to 31. At present, there are 17 ministers in Telangana state cabinet, and of these, only 10 were made district-in-charge ministers. Sources said the state government wants to appoint senior ministers as in-charge of two districts and junior ministers will be allotted each one district.

By this, all the cabinet ministers will be made in-charges of districts. Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao would take a decision on this soon, sources said. Meanwhile, the state government is also planning to change the existing pattern on allotment of funds under Special Development Fund to district-in-charge ministers. Under this scheme, the state government allots Rs 2 crore per assembly constituency for welfare and development activities for taking up works that are urgent in nature.

In addition to this, each district is allotted Rs 10 crore for taking the development works. The state government has sanctioned Rs 100 crore to 10 districts and released Rs 25 crore. Now, the state government wants to distribute the balance Rs 75 crore among all 31 districts. But for Hyderabad, new districts were formed by reorganising old districts. The state government will allot Rs 75 crore to all districts at the rate of Rs 2.40 crore to each district.