Politics overshadows people's aspirations in Adilabad

Adilabad: The people of the district are doubtful whether the efforts being made to create a new district is for their benefit or that of the political leaders.

Those who are witness to the unwanted developments and unexpected demands are equating the exercise with gambling, with different maps of new districts being circulated on social networking sites.    

K. Rajeshwar Kumar, a senior citizen of Adilabad town, said, political leaders were now talking much about dividing the parent Adilabad district into three, adding that the state government was giving scope for fresh demands without taking a final decision, based on scientific assessment and administrative viability.

He said that the state government was holding out to political leaders, emerging with their own fresh demands, and stage-managed agitations, while neglecting genuine needs.

Political leaders are said to be lobbying for the creation of a district with those towns in which they owned thousands of acres of land or in which they were invested in the real estate business.

News making the rounds has it that minister for endowments Allola Indrakaran Reddy is lobbying for the creation of Nirmal district, Nirmal being his home town, besides the existing demand for Mancherial, Bellampalli, Kagaznagar, Asifabad and Utnoor districts.

A post was circulated on social networking sites, claiming that he was thanking chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for  agreeing, in principle, to create Nirmal district, with some of his supporters celebrating the news and thanking the minister for his efforts in realising this demand.

Meanwhile, some people staged a Rasta Roko, demanding that the state government merge Basar town into Nizamabad due to the proximity of the two. What is also being circulated is the possibility of Mudhole Assembly constituency being merged into Nizamabad district if Nirmal district is not created.

In all the brouhaha, the state government seems not to be considering the Adivasis’ demand for the creation of an Utnoor district, the question on people’s minds also being whether the Integrated Tribal Development Agency, Utnoor had done enough to protect the rights of the tribals in light of the creation of a new district. Adivasi leaders said that they were going to be the real losers  on various counts — in the creation of new districts just as in the creation of a separate Telangana state.  

What is also being debated is whether the reports that the district administration was submitting to the state government on the creation of new  districts was being done under political pressure.