KCR Approves Carving Out Three More Districts

Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao approved the creation of three more districts - Siricilla, Gadwal and Janagama.

Addressing the media here on Monday, he said Telangana would have about 27 districts from the Dusshera festival this month as the TRS government in the state has embarked on a massive re-organisation of the revenue divisions and other administrative units.

The Chief Minister identified re-organisation of districts as one of the measures to be taken up, along with revival of ancient water bodies, as an administrative reform required in public interest. Telangana came into existence on June 2, 2014 as the 29th state of the country. The state government had constituted a committee headed by Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma to go into the issue of re-organisation of districts. It is now proposed that the number of districts would go up to 27 from the present 10.

The Telangana government is also re-organising revenue divisions and mandals. Rao kicked off consultations with his party leaders from the districts to get their feedback from the ground on the issue. He held talks with TRS leaders from Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda, Rangareddy, Nizamabad and Medak districts on Sunday and with leaders from Hyderabad, Karimnagar and other districts on Monday.

Speaking in the meeting, he said the government is still open to make changes in the proposals on the constitution of districts, divisions and mandals, a release from his office said.

The re-organisation of districts has attracted sharp criticism from main Opposition Congress and others. Hitting out at the ruling TRS, Congress and other Opposition parties alleged that the state government is going about the exercise as per its political advantage. Of particular mention among the protests was the demand for carving out a new district of Gadwal from Mahabubnagar district. The demand for Gadwal district, led by Congress MLA and former minister D K Aruna, has been spirited and the Congress leader had last week offered to quit her post if she is the impediment to the formation of Gadwal district. She alleged that the demand for Gadwal district is not being accepted as she continued to be a strong leader there.

Congress MLA from Kalwakurthy in Mahabubnagar district Ch Vamsichand Reddy undertook a protest in the state capital today in support of his demand for formation of a revenue division with Kalwakurthy as the headquarters. TDP, BJP, CPI and CPI(M) leaders have expressed solidarity with Vamsichand Reddy, Congress said in a release.

PTI