Hyderabad: AP Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is planning to set up regional development boards and will appoint MLAs as chairpersons with Cabinet rank.
According to his plans, there will be four boards, one for the four districts of Rayalaseema and one for north coastal Andhra’s three districts.
He wants to set up a separate regional development board for the East and West Godavari districts. The other four — Nellore, Prakasam, Krishna and Guntur — will have a separate regional development board.
In undivided AP, three regional development boards were formed for the first time in the mid-1970s as a part of the six-point formula, covering Telangana, Andhra and Rayalaseema. After the Telugu Desam came to power in 1983 under the leadership of N.T. Rama Rao, these boards were abolished.
The boards were headed by political appointees who enjoyed the rank of Cabinet ministers.
To check the spurt in regional feelings amidst demands for bifurcation, then Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy revived the regional development boards and divided them into four, one each for north coastal Andhra, one for the south coastal region, one for Telangana and another one for Rayalaseema.
Mr Reddy now wants to revive the regional development boards. Sources close to Mr Reddy said discussions were going for the purpose, and the government may take a final decision on the matter.
