Hyderabad: The state government has expedited the process of carving out new districts for administrative and public convenience.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has decided to increase the number of districts to 24 or 25 from the present 10 by Dasara, as part of his electoral promise. Carving of new districts will also in tune with the proposed delimitation of Assembly constituencies, which are expected to go up from 119 at present to 153.
A two-day conference of collectors and senior officials of state administration began at the Marri Chenna Reddy HRD Institute on Tuesday wherein collectors from each district gave PowerPoint presentations of mandals and revenue divisions in their area and proposed bifurcation or mergers for the new districts.
Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma, Special Chief Secretary, CCLA Commissioner Raymond Peter and Principle Secretary Revenue B.R. Meena and other officials participated. The Chief Minister is likely to participate in the workshop on Wednesday and formulate the guidelines for carving out new districts, revenue divisions and mandals in the state.
Sources said each of the districts would have 18 to 20 mandals, two revenue divisions, four to five Assembly constituencies and district headquarters within a 60-km radius. Steps are also being taken to ensure that an Assembly constituency is confined to the district borders and doesn’t spill over to another district.
“Bifurcation of districts is only for administrative convenience and has no political overtones. The process has begun and it will be speeded up after the Assembly session, by July-end or August,” a senior official said. There is also talk that there could be 24 districts in all since it will be in line with Mr Rao’s “lucky number” six (2 + 4).
Several names are also being floated for the new districts including P.V. Narasimha Rao district (Karimnagar), Komaram Bheem (Mancherial), Prof Jayashanker (Bhupalapally), Yadadri (Bhuvanagiri) and Bhadradri
(Kothagudem).
