Telangana became the youngest Indian state in June 2014 after being carved out of the erstwhile undivided AP. The state was formed with 10 districts, each with an average area of 11,000 sq km and an average population of 35 lakh. The number is almost twice the national average of 19 lakh per district as per the 2011 census. Consequently, several managerial and administrative hurdles have propped up at the district-level in Telangana.
A fundamental question that needs to be answered before one delves deeper into this debate is - why are districts so important? Districts in India remain to be the cutting edge of administration and service delivery. All government schemes are implemented at this level. Districts also form the third geographic layer for data dissemination after national and state-level set ups. Many agencies - such as the Census of India, Reserve Bank of India, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Directorate of Economics and Statistics etc - collect and compile data at the district level. A well-administered district with a managable population size is the cornerstone of a well-governed state.
With a population as high as 35 lakh to cater to, the district administraion in Telangana has been facing a daunting task to effectively and efficiently serve its mandate. There has been a long-standing need to ease the burden on the administration and to shorten the distance between the district headquarters and remote areas. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, by announcing the creation of new districts, has yet again exhibited his commitment towards citizen-centric administration and good governance. The move is a welcome step on many fronts. It allows the district collector and the CEO to be well-versed with the geography and topography of the district and its natural resources, thus prioritising resource allocation and putting the limited resources to their most productive use. It improves coordination and collabaration between the collector and the elected representatives by significally reducing the number of MLAs and MPs per district. This, in turn, helps in better monitoring and implemenation of central and state government schemes. Such a horizontal division would also markeldy improve the law and order in the remotest of areas of the state. By keeping its focus on the household as the fundamental unit of administration, the move gives a major fillip to pro-citizen governance. The proposed districts will serve only about 2-3 lakh households each, enabling effective management and easier identification of beneficiaries of schemes.
The latest addition to the existing quantum of districts, which comes after a wait of 38 years, augurs well for the welfare schemes being implemented by the state government. These novel initiatives are bespoke to overcome the challenges faced by the state. Mission Kakatiya, for example, adopts a comprehensive programme for restoration of tanks, which have been lifeline of Telangana owing to its geographical positioning.
The irrigation policy of the erstwhile AP government ignored the maintenance and development of these tanks and with the extinction of the tank system, self-sufficient villages of Telangana region became drought-prone areas. The objective of Mission Kakatiya is to augment agricultural income for small and marginal farmers by accelerating the development of minor irrigation infrastructure, strenghten community-based irrigation management and improving aquaculture.
With smaller districts, the formulation of prospective schemes shall be expedited too. Closely linked to the splintering of districts is the vision of Right to Service. RTS legislation comprises statutory laws which guarantee time-bound delivery of various public services rendered by government to citizen and provides mechanisms for punishing errant officials.
It is meant to reduce corruption among government officials and to increase transparency. It shall hold the administration accountable and render transparency in the domain of public services like issuing caste, birth, marriage and domicile certificates, ration cards, copies of land records and implementation of social welfare schemes like old-age pensions etc. Strenghtening this system will give a systemic improvement to the functioning of government.
To take the administration to the people, it becomes imperative to revamp the current administrative structure. The CM conducted a Secretaries level meeting on administrative set up after the districts’ reorganisation and directed IAS officers to visit other states to study their structures and subsequently realign administrative departments.
The trimming and expansion of departments will be done keeping in mind the workload in the new districts. The increased demand for civil servants will be accommodated by inducting officers under the Telangana State Civil Services to assist the Central civil servants in the coming 2-3 years. Meanwhile, the state government has requested the centre to revisit current allocation of IAS, IPS and IFS officers to TS. The new districts will be about three times smaller on an average from before.