BHUBANESWAR: As the demand for the creation of more districts is getting louder, the state government on Thursday informed the Assembly that proposals for 25 new districts have been received from different regions of the state. In a written reply to an unstarred question from BJP MLA and Opposition chief whip Mohan Majhi and Santosh Singh Saluja of Congress, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Sudam Marndi said maximum proposals have come from Ganjam district for the creation of four more districts.
The Revenue Department has received petitions for a separate Ghumsar district while some others demand Rushikulya district with district headquarters at Aska. The people of Berhampur want a separate district while those from Bhanjanagar demand district status.
People of the tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj district want its trifurcation to West Mayurbhanj, Rairangpur and Khiching. In Sundargarh, people of Bonai sub-division have been asking for a district status while demanding to make the steel city of Rourkela a separate district.
However, some petitioners have objected to the demand for a separate Rourkela district by dividing Sundargarh, the minister said. In Balangir district, people of Titilagarh, a sub-division and Kantabanji, a town have been pitching for separate districts.
Several organisations of the state capital city of Bhubaneswar have been demanding to make it a separate district bifurcating the existing district of Khurda. Those who made such demands argued that the population of Bhubaneswar city is more than the population of Deogarh, Boudh and Rayagada.
The government has received petitions for according to Chandikhol and Athagarh district status. People of Nilagiri and Soro Assembly constituencies also want separate district status from Balasore. There is also demand for district status to Talcher, Pallahara and Athmallik. These are now part of the Angul district.
The other demands for separate districts have come from Gunupur in the Rayagada district and Anandpur of the Keonjhar district. The demand for more districts gained momentum after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik assured to elevate Padampur sub-division to district status during the by-election last year. The minister said the government will take the decision at an appropriate time about the creation of a new district as per the criterion of the Odisha Revenue Administration (Unit) Act, 1963.