Hyderabad: The last time a new district was carved out (in united AP) was in 1978, when then Congress chief minister Marri Channa Reddy created the K.V. Ranga Reddy district, later called only Ranga Reddy district, comprising rural areas of Hyderabad district.
The district was named after former deputy Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh K.V. Ranga Reddy, a freedom fighter and father-in-law of Dr Channa Reddy.
The current reorganisation of districts is a part of the TRS’ 2014 election manifesto, which aimed at taking administration to the people’s doorsteps, which the government believes will be possible only through smaller districts and states.
Chief Minister and TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao had promised 24 districts in the 2014 election manifesto including five Assembly constituencies in every district.
Though the TRS had promised 24 districts including 14 new ones, the CM was forced to issue notification for 17 new districts due to pressure from the public and Opposition parties in addition to another four districts of Gadwal, Sircilla, Jangaon and Adilabad.
Another reason for the government’s decision to create new districts is allocation of funds by the Centre based on the number of districts.
Some of the states that have a large number of districts include Uttar Pradesh 72, Madhya Pradesh 50, Bihar 38, Maharashtra 35, Rajasthan 33, Tamil Nadu 32, Karnataka 30, Orissa 30, Assam 27, Chhattisgarh 27, Gujarat 26, Jharkhand 24, Jammu and Kashmir 22, Punjab 21 and Haryana 21.
