VIJAYAWADA: The State government has expedited the process of reorganisation of districts. Though uncertainty is still prevailing over the exact number of new districts, it is learnt that the total number of districts after reorganisation is likely to be 29.
In fact, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had announced to carve out new districts taking every Parliament constituency as a unit. Going by the formula, the State, which has 13 districts, will have 25 districts after the formation of the new ones. However, due to technical issues and objections and suggestions coming from various quarters, officials said, there will be more districts than the earlier planned 25.
Initially, reports emerged that the State will have 26 districts as there are possibilities of forming two districts from Araku Lok Sabha constituency, which spread across four districts (Srikakulam to East Godavari), and the remaining 24 Lok Sabha segments as new districts.
However, owing to the demands and technical issues, the number of districts is expected to increase now.
Speaking to TNIE, Deputy Chief Minister (Revenue) Dharmana Krishna Das said that the exercise for the formation of new districts is still going on and that it will take some more time for arriving at a logical conclusion.
Hinting at formation of more districts than earlier planned 25, the minister said the number may be 29, going by the existing proposals.
“Take the case of our Srikakulam district (native district of Krishna Das). If we form new districts taking the Parliament constituency as a unit, Srikakulam district will lose many industries and educational institutions, including the Dr BR Ambedkar University. So some objections were raised by the leaders and people. Similarly, there are some more demands for the division of some more districts. So, we will consider all the issues before taking a final call,’’ the minister explained.
Though the Deputy Chief Minister said that the process is expected to take some time, it was reported that the officials embarked on finding the required buildings and infrastructure for the new district head quarters.
Meanwhile, official sources said that as the Census is not going on at present due to COVID-19, there are no freezing orders on changing boundaries till December 31, 2020.
“If the government forms new districts now, every district will get a code related to the Census when the process starts. In case of not completing the reorganisation of districts by that time, the existing districts will only be given the coding. However, there are no complicated technical issues involved in the process,” an official said.
