Andhra Pradesh on Monday, 4 April, got 13 new districts, taking the total to 26, following a major re-organisation of its 13 existing districts.
Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy inaugurated the 26 new districts on Monday morning, announcing that it was a great day for people of the state who seem to accept and appreciate a decentralised form of government. This is because, he added, a decentralised government directly delivers to people's doorstep and the same will be extended to districts from now.
He also launched the district portals and handbooks to keep the public informed about the new districts. Officials will be taking charge at all the new district offices on Monday.
Andhra Pradesh will now comprise 21 revenue divisions as part of the 26 districts.
Ahead of the reorganisation, the state also appointed district collectors and superintendents of police for all the new districts. It has also reshuffled IAS and IPS officers, reported The News Minute.
Decentralised Form of Government
Reddy also extended wishes and congratulated officials, employees, and people for the formation of the new districts. He asked the officials to ensure that people benefit from the government schemes.
“We have seen the development through decentralised administration in the form of village and ward secretariats. We are now decentralising at the district level as well. From now on, AP is a state with 26 districts. We have at least one parliamentary constituency per district,” the CM stated.
The districts are supposedly being formed for decentralisation and ease of administration.
“There are 26 districts in Arunachal Pradesh which has less population as compared to Andhra Pradesh. No other state in the country has such a large population for a district and the formation of districts is very much needed for Andhra with a population of about 4.96 crore,” he added.
He mentioned that there was one district for 38.15 lakh people but with the formation of 26 districts, there would be 19.07 lakh people per district.
“A district with six to eight Assembly segments has been formed, except in one tribal district. With the formation of new districts, there will be better governance, peace, security, and transparency. The government is focused on decentralised governance at the village, ward, and district levels. The 23 revenue divisions formed are to cater to the people of AP," the chief minister added.
Four sub-committees have been formed under the chief minister to ensure a smooth reorganisation process.
Prior to the appointment of officials, the state had issued a gazette notification detailing the same.
In January, the state had issued a draft notification expressing its intention to reorganise all its districts. Following this, the state invited suggestions from the public regarding the formation of new districts. As many as 16,600 suggestions and objections were received from the public, officials told CM Reddy on 30 March. The districts have been carved out according to those suggestions, officials had said.
The 26 reorganised districts and their headquarters are: NTR (Vijayawada), Sri Satyasai (Puttaparthi), Annamayya (Rayachoty), Sri Balaji (Tirupati), Anakapalli (Anakapalli), Kakinada (Kakinada), Konaseema (Amalapuram), Eluru (Eluru), Bapatla (Bapatla), Palnadu (Narasaraopeta), Nandyal (Nandyal), Manyam (Parvathipuram), Alluri Sitharama Raju (Paderu), East Godavari (Rajahmundry), West Godavari (Bhimavaram), Guntur, Kurnool, Anantapur, Chittoor, Prakasam (Ongole), Krishna, Nellore, Kadapa, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, and Srikakulam.
(With inputs from The News Minute.)
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